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Kennedy Space Center switched on a greener future Nov. 19 with the ceremonial commissioning of a first-of-its kind
solar energy power plant for NASA.
Florida Power & Light and Sunpower Corporation officials joined Center Director and former astronaut Bob Cabana to
commission the one megawatt facility.
The solar farm covers five acres in Kennedy's Industrial area and is large enough to convert the sun's energy into one
megawatt of electricity. That's enough energy to power about 110 homes. At Kennedy, the electricity will be
funneled into the center's power grid.
The electricity production capitalizes on a source of renewable energy that does not produce any carbon emissions in
the process.
"Having looked down on our environment from space, from 200 miles high, if you look at the Earth, it's this beautiful
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
pretty fragile from up there, and it's all that's protecting us from the harmful ultraviolet radiation from space and
extreme temperatures and I think anything we can do to help the environment and keep it better is really
important."
NARRATOR:
Although spacecraft are often built with solar panels, Kennedy's new solar farm is the first time NASA has used a
large and permanent facility for solar energy production.
It will be joined in the spring by a 10 megawatt facility on Kennedy land that will feed energy to all Florida Power &
Light customers. For future development, a research facility has been proposed to explore renewable energy
options and a larger solar farm on 500 acres. That could boost the energy capacity to 100 megawatts at Kennedy.