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Kennedy Space Center switched on a greener future Nov. 19 with the ceremonial commissioning of a first-of-its kind

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solar energy power plant for NASA.

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Florida Power & Light and Sunpower Corporation officials joined Center Director and former astronaut Bob Cabana to

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commission the one megawatt facility.

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The solar farm covers five acres in Kennedy's Industrial area and is large enough to convert the sun's energy into one

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megawatt of electricity. That's enough energy to power about 110 homes. At Kennedy, the electricity will be

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funneled into the center's power grid.

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The electricity production capitalizes on a source of renewable energy that does not produce any carbon emissions in

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the process.

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"Having looked down on our environment from space, from 200 miles high, if you look at the Earth, it's this beautiful

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blue jewel of a planet and there's this thin little hazy line over the top of it and that's our atmosphere and it looks

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pretty fragile from up there, and it's all that's protecting us from the harmful ultraviolet radiation from space and

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extreme temperatures and I think anything we can do to help the environment and keep it better is really

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important."

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NARRATOR:

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Although spacecraft are often built with solar panels, Kennedy's new solar farm is the first time NASA has used a

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large and permanent facility for solar energy production.

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It will be joined in the spring by a 10 megawatt facility on Kennedy land that will feed energy to all Florida Power &

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Light customers. For future development, a research facility has been proposed to explore renewable energy

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options and a larger solar farm on 500 acres. That could boost the energy capacity to 100 megawatts at Kennedy.