On Monday, February 5, 2019, during the City of Kissimmee Commissioners Meeting, KUA’s Vice President of Power Supply, Larry Mattern, presented to Mayor Jose Alvarez and the City Commissioners its the new Community Solar Program. In a unanimous vote, the commission approved a partnership with Kissimmee Utility Authority to power 100 percent of its facilities with solar energy, beginning in 2020.

In 2018 the Kissimmee Utility Authority (KUA) joined the Florida Municipal Solar Project. This large-scale solar energy project will allow KUA to provide renewable energy to its customers in an extremely cost-effective way. The project is one of the largest municipal solar projects in the United States and is a joint effort between the Florida Municipal Power Agency, NextEra Florida Renewables, LLC., and 12 of its member municipal utilities. This project will include construction of two solar farms within Osceola County measure the length about 2 football fields.

KUA and other participating municipal electric utilities will be purchasing power from the project through their private partner. There is no up-front cost and KUA will only pay for the power it purchases. KUA plans to purchase 30 megawatts of power, which is approximately 6,000 typical residential electric customers in Florida.

“We welcome the City as our first solar subscriber,” said KUA president and general manager Jim Welsh. “We anticipate tremendous interest by both residential and commercial customers as we roll out this new community solar option.”

Mattern explained that solar generated power offered through KUA from this program will be at a rate that is fixed for the duration of the program’s 20-year commitment. By joining the program, the rate will initially slightly higher for solar over traditionally generated power, but over time that rate will become comparatively lower as fuel prices can potentially rise for non-solar customers.

Evaluations were done on the cost of adding all of the City’s facilities to the program, including buildings, grounds, and park facilities.

“This great project that KUA has in front of us is not just a feel good thing that we are using solar energy, this is a savings into the future. With the motion passing, Kissimmee is the first city in Florida to be going 100% solar on all of its properties.“

Congratulations City of Kissimmee and thank you to Kissimmee Utility Authority for being a forward thinking and community-minded organization!

For more information on the Florida Municipal Solar Project, and Kissimmee Utility Authority just visit here: https://bit.ly/2WONF4d