The new Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center, located in Brevard County, Fla., near NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, is part of our ongoing effort to replace older plants with newer, more fuel-efficient energy centers. In 2010, we took down our 1960s-era Cape Canaveral Plant, which had been built to power the space race and reliably served FPL customers for half a century.
In its place, we built a new, high-efficiency energy center that runs on clean, affordable, U.S.-produced natural gas.
The high-efficiency facility can generate enough electricity to power about 250,000 homes and businesses using 33 percent less fuel per megawatt compared with the original plant. This improved fuel efficiency means the plant will save hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel costs – a savings that FPL passes dollar-for-dollar to customers. Investments in efficient power plants like this are one of the reasons why FPL’s typical residential customer bills are lower than the national average and the lowest of all 55 electric utilities in Florida.
Compared with the former plant, FPL’s Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center slashes the carbon dioxide emissions rate in half. That’s the equivalent of removing about 46,000 cars from the road each year. The new plant also reduces the air emissions rate by 90 percent, and it doesn’t require any additional water or land. In addition, the site’s administration building features solar panels and an electric vehicle charging station.
Converting oil-fired plants to domestic natural gas is making a difference. We’ve slashed our dependence on foreign oil by 98 percent – reducing our use from more than 40 million barrels in 2001 to less than 1 million barrels in 2012.
Beyond the benefits of cleaner air and more efficient electricity, FPL’s Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center will produce approximately $15 million in new tax revenue in its first full year of operation alone, which will directly benefit local schools and other public services, making a difference throughout the Space Coast community.