Q&A of the Day – Where does Florida’s power come from?
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s entry: Recently there was a report FPL closed their last coal plant and they’re constantly talking up renewables but the Sierra Club, whom I’m skeptical of, said FPL fails at environmentalism. I’m sure the truth is somewhere in the middle but what I haven't heard anyone discuss is how much power is coming from each source.
Bottom Line: To you your point regarding the recent Sierra Club rankings, they failed Florida’s second leading provider of energy, Duke energy as well... Just two days prior to Fortune naming Duke Energy to the World’s Most Admired Companies list for the fourth consecutive year specifically due to efforts to “Combat climate change” and to “Invest in renewable energy”. Unfortunately, the Sierra Club has been little more than a political advocacy platform hiding behind the guise of the environment for many years. To answer your question about where our power is coming from...here goes.
The most recent study of Florida’s energy production was provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration last November. According to their findings here are the facts about Florida’s power.
- Florida’s now the 2nd leading producer of power nationally
- 75% of Florida’s power is derived from natural gas
- 12% from nuclear power
- 9% from coal
- 4% from renewables led by solar
It’s worth noting this information is all a year old at this point. Based on the most recent trends there’s likely a little less use of coal and a little more use of solar and natural gas in real-time. Now, relative to renewables, Florida is second to only California and Georgia in production. Given that it’s only 4% of the current power used in Florida’s power grid – tells you how little is taking place generally. Notably, as you mentioned, FPL’s now out of the coal business and has a plan in place to have 20% of their power generation derived from solar by 2030. In real-time, virtually all new power capacity is coming in the form of natural gas and solar power.
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