Daytona Speeds into Clean Energy Race with 7,000 Panels

Florida Power & Light has teamed with Daytona International Speedway to upgrade the speedway’s facilities just in time for this year’s Daytona 500. The solar upgrades consist of three canopy installations, boasting more than 7,000 panels in total that now benefit the entirety of its 101,000-person capacity.

In addition to powering Daytona Speedway’s daily operations, FPL will be using these installations to gather data, likely regarding placement, commercial usage, and overall capacity. This sort of data can then be used by the state utility to identify the best courses for solar within their company, be it neighborhood-wide residential application or a more industrial approach.

The data gathered from these panels within the last few weeks has already turned out results, showing that Daytona is now among the top five U.S. professional sports facilities in energy generation. And research like this will continue over the next several years to help FPL and solar industry professionals better study the technology and collection power of the 7,186 panels in use.

As of now, roughly 3,000 of Florida Power & Light’s 4.7 million statewide consumers utilize solar power, and 1.2 million of that 4.7 million reside solely in Central Florida. While FPL may be able to turn some of their customers onto solar, the real change is going to come from the individual’s pursuit.

Instead, companies like Fun in the Sun have long pushed the idea that you don’t need data and multi-year studies to realize solar energy is the next big thing. There has been a constant growth of solar energy equipment installations in Central Florida for years, and at Fun in the Sun, we know that is because Florida residents are learning the truth about solar. It’s clean, affordable energy that homeowners and businesses can control and collect for themselves. You don’t need a state utility to tell you that’s a truly valuable resource.