Dive Brief:

• Florida Power & Light (FPL) is proposing a new, voluntary pilot program inviting customers to contribute $9 a month to its construction of up to 25 commercial-scale solar arrays, for an estimated total of 2.4 MW.
• So far, the utility has been doing a pilot program the Public Service Commission (PSC) ordered a few years ago, which required payments to customers with rooftop solar. From 2011 to 2013 the programs "cost FPL customers nearly $30 million, including $16.5 million to provide rebate subsidies for about 900 customers individual small-scale solar-panel installations -- the least economical form of solar photovoltaic power," FPL said. The pilots "are not cost-effective as they cost all customers more to fund than the benefits they generate."
• Sweetening the deal, FPL said its parent, NextEra Energy, would contribute $200,000 a year on behalf of the program to nonprofit organizations dedicated to environmental protection and community development. The Everglades Foundation, a potential recipient, said the program is "an example of the leadership and innovation needed for a better and greener Florida."

Dive Insight:

The Sunshine State has rankled renewables enthusiasts for its lack of a solar-power mandate. But utilities there argue successfully, unlike utilities in many other states, that rooftop solar is a bad business model for customers. Activists are renewing their efforts for solar, however. Some of them demonstrated at Duke Energy's headquarters this week, pressing the utility to get into solar. The company noted that its solar deployments in other states have come because the states had renewable energy standards, which Florida has resisted.