City Panning
SCI/362

ENERGY SOURCE | INITIAL SET UP COST | MONTHLY COST | ENERGY OUTPUT LIMIT | Solar Power | $3.5 billion | $300,000 | 1,000 Megawatts |

City Planning

The state of Florida is known as the sunshine state. It is probably most famous for its beautiful, tropical like weather. South Florida (City of Miami) is probably the sunniest place in the state of Florida. Due to the Miami’s almost constant exposure to the sun, it would make Miami an ideal place for a Solar Power Plant.
To set up a solar power plant in Miami, a couple of necessities have to be established first. For example, one would need to know the initial set up cost for the energy production. The cost to set up solar power plant will cost approximately 3.5 billion dollars. So if the yearly budget only allotted ten billion dollars for set up cost, there could be the potential for three facilities to be built. Also, the monthly cost will have to be figured out and calculated. If the monthly cost was $300,000.00, and the yearly budget after the initial receipt of the 10 billion dollars for set up cost was 1 billion dollars per year, there could only be one solar power plant built. The building of three would take the plans over the allotted budget because, although there would be set up funds available, the monthly cost would fall short. Moreover, the energy output limit would have to be established and maintained. Take a look at the chart above, it would take 1,000 megawatts to power Miami as of right now, however, the way Miami is growing, there is no doubt that number will be rapidly increasing.
Although the setup cost and monthly cost could be viewed as expensive, the advantages of implementing a solar power plant outweigh the cost and/or any disadvantages that may arise. For example, solar energy is FREE! Now don’t confuse the monthly cost with solar energy cost because these are two different things. The monthly cost is for the running of the equipment, building the facility, and the managing the equipment it takes to turn solar energy into hot water or electricity. Another advantage is the fact that solar power won’t cause pollution. Also in using solar energy, power can be provided to those who live in rural or remote areas which can’t afford an electric power grid. Lastly, the estimated timeframe for the world’s oil reserve is approximately 30-40 years, however, solar energy last forever. Though there are some great advantages to solar energy; there, unfortunately, are a few disadvantages as well. For example, solar power can only be harnessed during the day time. Also, the panels, cells, and solar collectors used to harness said energy can be very expensive to manufacture (but prices are constantly falling). Moreover, solar power stations don’t really match the output of energy that similar power stations put out. Lastly, to harness solar power, a large area of land is required. The collectors are normally arranged together, but this can take up a vast amount of space. Having state those facts, the advantages of solar energy far outweigh the minor disadvantages for implementing this plan.
Over the next 20 years or so, solar energy will probably be the main source of energy for the state of Florida (hopefully). Though the advantages are greater, maintaining and budgeting this plan will not be easy. As inflation is steady rising, so will the cost to run solar power plants, however, with the steady decline of solar collector, panels, and cell cost, this should even things out as far as the financial aspect is concerned. Nevertheless, the biggest issue would probably be population. In the next 20 years, the population will have increased by almost a fourth of what it is now. That means more people will need power, which in turn means more mega wattage will be needed. This will require the building of more solar power plants which will require the use of more space and money…Something that Miami currently lacks as of right now and with the growth of the population over the next 20years, this can serve a serious problem. More than likely, we as humans will do what you usually do…Cut down more trees and forest areas and build, build, build. The use of solar energy as a way of powering the city of Miami is not only an awesome idea, but it is an extremely healthy one as well seeing as solar energy doesn’t cause pollution, among the other vast positive aspects of this idea. The utilization of the fact that solar energy can only be harnessed during daylight hours as a means of disagreeing with the setup of solar power plants is a very weak and non-factor as the sun is usually up and out in Miami for approximately 10+ hours a day (not including daylight savings time). Solar energy is just an overall great idea for Miami. It’s healthier, cost efficient (solar energy is free), and it last FOREVER!

Reference:
DesJardins, J. R. (2013). Environmental ethics: An introduction to environmental philosophy (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning