City of Lake Worth Beach Electric Utility to Begin Receiving Solar Energy from Rice Creek Solar Energy Center

City of Lake Worth Beach Electric Utility to Begin Receiving Solar Energy from Rice Creek Solar Energy Center

The third facility of the Florida Municipal Solar Project will support 12 Florida cities with nearly 75 MWac

 

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Florida – The City of Lake Worth Beach has begun receiving solar energy from the completed Rice Creek Solar Center. The project will supply nearly 75 MWac of carbon-free electricity to 12 Florida cities, of which 13.25 MWac is allocated to Lake Worth Beach’s electric utility under a twenty-year contract.

Rice Creek Solar is the third solar site in the Florida Municipal Solar Project, one of the largest municipal-backed solar projects in the U.S. Located in Putnam County, Florida, it consists of 213,000 solar panels that generate enough power for approximately 14,000 homes. This is Lake Worth Beach’s first time participating in the Florida Municipal Solar Project.

“The City of Lake Worth Beach Electric Utility is excited to celebrate the completion of the Rice Creek Solar Center and begin receiving solar energy on behalf of our customers,” said Ed Liberty, Lake Worth Beach’s Director of Electric Utilities. “Growing the use of renewable energy has been an important priority for the community we serve, and we are pleased to provide this opportunity to them through our participation in the Florida Municipal Solar Project. Participation in this utility-scale project allows us to purchase solar energy at a substantially lower cost than anything we could build on our own and will directly replace energy from our interest in a coal unit which began operation in the 1980s and will be retired by year-end 2025. Lake Worth Beach is also set to receive even more solar power at the completion of the next solar facility in the FMPA project, expected to be completed by the end of 2025.”

The 12 utilities that will receive power from the Rice Creek solar facility include Beaches Energy Services (Jacksonville Beach), Fort Pierce Utilities Authority, Homestead, Keys Energy Services (Key West), Kissimmee Utility Authority, Lake Worth Beach, Mount Dora, New Smyrna Beach Utilities, Newberry, Ocala, Town of Havana and Winter Park. This is the first solar power project for Havana, New Smyrna Beach and Newberry.

“We are excited to expand our solar power generation and bring even more affordable and clean energy to our members,” said Jacob Williams, general manager and CEO of the Orlando-based wholesale power agency. “By working together, our Members and their communities benefit from additional solar-powered energy that’s both cost-effective and carbon-free.”

Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) serves as the project coordinator, and the 12 municipal utilities, who are member-owners of FMPA, will purchase power from the project. Miami-based Origis Energy, a leading renewable energy and decarbonization solution platform, is the builder, owner and operator.

As part of the expansion of the Florida Municipal Solar Project, a fourth solar site, Whistling Duck Solar in Levy County, began construction at the end of 2024. The FMSP is expected to increase to seven sites over the next few years and will generate approximately 525 MWac of power in total.

For more on Rice Creek, visit https://origisenergy.com/project/rice-creek.

  For more information on the Florida Municipal Solar Project or FMPA, visit www.fmpa.com.

For more information on the City of Lake Worth Beach Electric Utility, visit

www.utilities.lakeworthbeachfl.gov/ or www.citizenownedenergy.com