Clear Sky Tampa Bay: Tampa Bay Regional Policy Landscape Analysis (Florida Energy Resilience Policy Landscape)

Summary

The Tampa Bay Region faces substantial risks from power outages, with current emergency plans primarily depending on fossil-fuel generators for backup, lacking sufficient integration of solar+storage for resilience. The Clear Sky Tampa Bay (CSTB) project aims to develop a framework to incorporate disaster risk reduction into solar+storage siting, building on an analysis that identified $24.7 million in unfunded generator projects across 5 counties, representing 180 potential sites for clean energy solutions, including 2.735 MW in Pinellas County alone. While Florida ranks 3rd nationally for solar capacity and projects an additional 8.6 GW by 2030, most growth is utility-scale, necessitating new policies to align this expansion with critical facility resilience. Existing programs like SunSmart e-Shelters have already installed 211 kW of solar+storage in 21 schools, highlighting potential, especially for the over 32,000 electricity-dependent Medicare beneficiaries in the region.

Key Facts

Source Document

https://example-government.gov/policy-document-link