Solar Power World

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As a leading U.S. renewable power producer, NextEra Energy, formerly FPL Group, favors photovoltaic solar power over thermal solar.  “I think we’re going to find increasingly that the market is a PV market,” Moray Dewhurst, vice chairman and chief of staff at FPL, said at the Reuters Energy Summit in Houston.

Photovoltaic (PV) modules currently make up the largest chunk of the U.S. market, though some analysts expect concentrated thermal technology to become more popular in the next few years. Solar thermal companies such as Brightsource, Abengoa Solar and eSolar Inc. use the sun’s rays, reflected by thousands of tiny mirrors, to heat liquids to create steam in turbines and generate electricity. Some see the technology as a better option than rooftop PV for utility-scale projects because they tend to be on a larger scale. The solar U.S. utility market is expected to grow during the next few years.

Dewhurst said FPL is technology agnostic, but he sees PV as having the greatest flexibility since it’s the easiest to construct and add in smaller increments. Yet, he said the cost of new solar remains the most critical factor when determining which type of technology to add, followed by reliability of the systems and stability of the providers.

NextEra Energy Inc.

nexteraenergy.com