Disney World Builds Happiest Solar Project on Earth

A new solar farm right outside the gates of Disney World and Epcot Center is causing quite a stir. Over the past year, Duke Energy built the 22-acre installation which features 48,000 photovoltaic panels arranged to look like the head of Mickey Mouse.
 
Equivalent in size to about 1,000 residential rooftop solar systems, the panels will bring peak output of about 5 megawatts of power generation to the resort and its partners.

The solar array will be operated by Duke Energy, which will sell the alternative energy to Reedy Creek Improvement District to help meet the power needs of Walt Disney World Resort and its other customers, such as Four Seasons Resort and the hoteliers along Hotel Plaza Boulevard.

But this green energy project at the Happiest Place on Earth is 50 years in the making.

In the mid-1960's, when Walt Disney selected 25,000 acres of mostly uninhabited swampland and forest to build his second theme park, the area was so remote that the nearest power and water lines were 10 to 15 miles away.

Furthermore, the property straddled 2 separate counties and neither of the counties had the services or resources needed to support a resort of that size.

The solution proposed by the Florida State Legislature, working with the Walt Disney World Company, was to create a special tax district called the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

This new district would act with the same authority and responsibility as a county government. A county government with just one tenant that is, because the Walt Disney Corporation would be solely responsible for paying the cost of providing typical municipal services like power, water, roads, fire protection, etc.

The cherry on top that sealed the deal was that local taxpayers, meaning residents of Orange and Osceola County, would not have to pay for building or maintaining those services, making it a win-win for everyone.

Fast-forward to 2015. As part of Disney’s efforts to make its resorts more environmentally sustainable, a 5-megawatt solar facility project was announced.

The Reedy Creek Improvement District accepted a fifteen-year power agreement with Duke Energy. Under the agreement, Duke Energy will lease the land from The Walt Disney Corporation and Disney will purchase the solar power from Duke.

This is another example of private industries working with local government.

Duke Energy has also said it aims to add up to 500 megawatts of additional solar energy to Florida by 2024.

The five megawatts facility is the largest solar-power project at Disney World and caused quite a stir with its unusual shape: Mickey Mouse.

Unusual perhaps for a solar plant, but quite fitting for the "Happiest Place on Earth", who can now boast of having the "Happiest Solar Project on Earth”.