Florida Power & Light Co. plans to convert its Cape Canaveral and Riviera Beach power plants to burn cleaner natural gas, reducing emissions and costs, the company announced Wednesday.
"Modernizing these two power plants to high-efficiency natural gas units will be a win for FPL customers and these communities," said FPL President Armando Olivera.
The two plants currently burn a mixture of oil and gas to produce electricity. The conversions of both sites to 100 percent natural gas, along with more modern technology, will reduce particulate emissions by 88 percent and carbon dioxide emission rates by 50 percent, according to FPL.
The company hopes to bring the new Cape Canaveral site online in 2013, with the Riviera Beach upgrade to follow a year later.
The company said the new units will be more efficient and will produce the same amount of power with 33 percent less fuel.
However, the site upgrades are contingent upon FPL receiving approval from the state to build a third natural gas unit at another Palm Beach County site.
Without that, FPL said it would not have enough "reserve" generating capacity to take the Riviera Beach and Cape Canaveral plants off-line to upgrade them.
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