User:Emerson Winston/Florida Light and Power

Wildlife[edit]
Surrounding the FPL operated Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant is 168 miles of cooling water canals that attract American crocodiles, which nest in the canals. These canals are home to endangered loggerhead sea turtles, manatees, and crocodiles that are tracked by the plants monitoring program. The sea turtle protection program has tagged over 12,000 sea turtles in 25 years. This program is one of the largest databases of wild captured sea turtles in the world. The College of Turtle Knowledge teaches the public about the study of turtles and how they are being protected.

Solar programs[edit]
FPL began its program Solar for Schools in 2013 and has installed solar arrays at more than 100 schools and non-profit educational centers across Florida.

FPL started the SolarNow program in 2015. FPL customers can voluntarily contribute to the program which makes community-type solar installations throughout Florida. The first installation was at the Young At Art Museum and included an educational display that presented information on how the panels function, the impact weather can have, and a real-time display of how much electricity the solar array generates.

The NextEra Energy Next Generation Living Lab at the FPL headquarters in Juno Beach, Florida includes rooftop solar installations which allow the expansion of solar power research. The installations are being used to research clean-energy expansions, next-generation renewable technologies, and efficiency and storage capabilities of the electric grid.

FPL proposed a program, SolarTogether on March 13, 2019 which will house a total of 1,490 megawatts of solar capacity. The program will help improve Florida's reliance on fossil fuel energy. With SolarTogether, FPL will be able to generate electricity through the customer incentive. Customer will have the ability to voluntarily finance the project by paying more on their electricity bill. As a result, in approximately seven years the customer will get a "payback" from FPL. In an effort to help Floridians decrease their reliance on fossil fuels, the Florida Public Service Committee has obtained thousands of acres of land for the usage of FPLs solar projects. So, when FPLs solar projects start to take off, more land will need to be obtained in order to eventually increase the number of solar power panels and plants.

Criticism[edit]
FPL created a proposal to diversify its fuel sources by building a coal-burning power plant on 5,000 acres (20 km2) in Moore Haven, Florida, near the western edge of Lake Okeechobee. After the National Park Service raised concerns that it would emit toxic mercury into the lake and also harm the Everglades, the state Public Service Commission rejected the plan in 2007.

In August 2007, the St. Lucie nuclear plant reduced power output while a leak in a condensation pump was repaired.

Beginning in January 2009, environmental activists worked to draw attention to what they claimed were damages being wreaked by the power company's 3,750 megawatt Martin County plant. The activists claimed that the power plant is drawing water from the aquifer below the swamp causing the soil to subside below the root systems of the trees. Florida Power & Light, which began voluntarily preserving the land in 1972, reopened the Barley Barber Swamp for tours in 2010.

Along with other state utilities, FPL has been criticized for using its influence with state politicians and political organizations to reject laws which would make it easier for home and business owners to adopt rooftop solar. According to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, several of the top utility companies in Florida, including FPL, have contributed over $12 million towards the election campaigns of state lawmakers since 2010.

FPL is a large utility company that the majority of Florida is dependent on FPL for their utilities. With a large consumer base, they deal with a variety of incidents, one of which included 4.4 million people losing their power due to hurricane Irma. As Tyler Mauldin, an FPL spokes person stated, “This was the largest restoration effort that we had ever seen in our company history, if not the history of the industry, the electric industry, so it was a huge undertaking”. After hurricane Irma hit the state of Florida on September 10th, 2017, many Floridians were willing to transfer to a more reliable electricity source by installing solar panels on their residences. The switch to solar power in Florida would cause a decrease in their utility income due to less supply and demand for the resources and energy they offer. In 2016, FPL ban all usage and implementation of solar panels. However, in 2019 FPL got rid of the ban and allowed homeowners to install solar panels on their homes as a long as they not sell or keep the additional monetary value they were making from the panels.

Awards and recognition[edit]
The company was recognized in 2014 as the most trusted U.S. electric utility by Market Strategies International  In 2014, FPL was the winner of the ReliabilityOne award for the south region and the Technology & Innovation award, both from the PA Consulting Group. That same year, FPL earned the national ServiceOne Award for outstanding customer service for its 10 consecutive year. According to the 2016 J.D. Power study on energy utilities companies, FPL ranked at the top position in customer satisfaction. FPL Group and NextEra Energy were rated as the most admired company amongst gas and electric utilities by Fortune Magazine for eight consecutive years. In 2020 FPL won for the fifth time in six years the ReliabilityOne® National Reliability Excellence Award. Additionally, FPL was acknowledged as the "most trusted U.S. electric utilities by Esculent for the seventh consecutive year" and "ranked No.1 in Fortune’s 2020 list of World’s Most Admired Companies".