Solar power farm coming to Disney

[GrumpyFan]

Yes! It'll go a little something like this...

"Feel the flow, here we go, through the Universe of Duke Energy!"

Guys, there has been NO mention of Duke sponsoring Universe of Energy or anything else.
This is an agreement between Duke and RCID for a solar plant to provide power for RCID.

 

[MonorailLover]

Guys, there has been NO mention of Duke sponsoring Universe of Energy or anything else.
This is an agreement between Duke and RCID for a solar plant to provide power for RCID.

Dont worry Grumpy, its just wishful thinking...... Let them wish......

 

[GrumpyFan]

Dont worry Grumpy, its just wishful thinking...... Let them wish......

I get that, and I completely agree. It would be really nice IF somebody were to take that on and give us a re-imagined UoE, as it's so desperately needed. I just didn't want to see this little bit grow into a rumor that some other fanboi picks up and posts on their blog as "new rumor for Epcot". Of course, this IS the Internet, it's probably happening as I type.

 

[Sage of Time]

This is REALLY cool. Hope you can see it from a guest area. And I REALLY hope that this means that changes are on the way for the Universe of Energy.

 

[Bluewaves]

Instead of building Celebration they should have covered the whole southern half of the property with solar panels, than Disney wouldn't have had to buy any power from anyone

 

[Tom]

The fact that it's only 5 mw and planned to be along World Drive and Epcot Center Drive (assumed visible by guests), seems that it's more of a publicity/marketing initiative than actual green power initiative.

Seems odd to put it there though, with the power plant on the other side of Epcot, between Epcot Center Drive and Overpass Road (shown below).

View attachment 94492

I don't think they generate any power there. That's just a substation.

OK - I'm curious.....

Does anyone know what the LEGAL DEFINITION is for "what can be built on Conservation or Wetland?" We know roads, hotels, and a number of other things are forbidden. But is absolutely EVERYTHING forbidden? By name? By type? I don't know.

This could be a very CLEVER move by Disney... we have the Holy Hand Grenade of "SOLAR", fighting it out with the Holy Hand Grenade of "CONSERVATION LAND". Brilliant - get Green warring with Green .

This COULD be a very effective way for Disney to make practical use of a lot of property that they simply can NOT build on. I wish I understood if all, or only defined, building was forbidden on "Conservation Land".

Trotsky?

 

[Bolt]

Anywhere we can put reusable energy is good in my book - on or off Disney property.

 

[wdwmagic]

According to the WDWMagic Facts page,

Energy Consumption at WDW
The average daily consumption is of 60 to 62 megawatts.
​

I'm not sure if that's a current figure. Anybody?

No not current, it's about 15 years old.

 

[GrumpyFan]

No not current, it's about 15 years old.

So, add 15-20%? 72-75mw?

 

[DisneyJayL]

Will it be the shape of Mickey? maybe?

 

[danlb_2000]

Will it be the shape of Mickey? maybe?

Yes it will, from the article...

"The power plant's 48,000 solar panels will be arranged in the shape of — what else? — a Mickey Mouse head."

 

[DisneyJayL]

Yes it will, from the article...

"The power plant's 48,000 solar panels will be arranged in the shape of — what else? — a Mickey Mouse head."

Nothing wrong with that then!

 

[Bugz]

Will this help replace all of those LED bulbs burnt out at the resorts? J/K.

Gee I thought they never burned out , lol

 

[TomHendricks]

Well remember, it's better to burn out then fade away.

 

[Monorail_Red_77]

The fact that it's only 5 mw and planned to be along World Drive and Epcot Center Drive (assumed visible by guests), seems that it's more of a publicity/marketing initiative than actual green power initiative.

Seems odd to put it there though, with the power plant on the other side of Epcot, between Epcot Center Drive and Overpass Road (shown below).

View attachment 94492

Good catch. I think though that this is a power substation where the power comes from underground utilities and goes into EPCOT The larger building may be a central air chiller plant for park wide air conditioning. Not sure, but the four large fans has me thinking that. The only other actual power plant on property is directly north of MK. Not counting the small methane powered power plant at the waste treatment facility.

Here's a zoom of the location you are speaking of. on the right is the power substation and on the left is chiller plant.
Unless of course I am wrong. Then in that case, the merry-go-round is on the left and the monkey bars are on the right. LOL

 

[GeneralKnowledge]

If I am correct, these are not going to be solar panels as you may think. I think this will be a series of movable mirrors, that will direct sunlight to a central point, which will then heat up, and be used to boil water, where the steam generated will then be used to turn steam generators. Therefore, nothing secondary this can be used for - as the mirrors are always moving and must stay clean.

You are not correct.

 

[GoofGoof]

If I am correct, these are not going to be solar panels as you may think. I think this will be a series of movable mirrors, that will direct sunlight to a central point, which will then heat up, and be used to boil water, where the steam generated will then be used to turn steam generators. Therefore, nothing secondary this can be used for - as the mirrors are always moving and must stay clean.

No. These are regular photovoltaic solar panels similar to the rooftop ones. Concentrated solar takes a whole lot more space. The large utility scale concentrated solar plants out in the desert in CA are significantly larger in scale. This is Ivanpah in the desert outside of Las Vegas. It produces almost 400 MWs and takes up 4,000 acres of desert:

This project will likely look more similar to this (in the shape of a Mickey head). This is a 5MW array on a similar sized piece of land:

As far as the size goes it's not a huge percentage of total power used by WDW, but it's a start. According to RCId their peak energy usage is 196 MW but the typical load is probably less than that most hours of most days. The solar power will only be produced during the day, but that's the peak time when prices are highest.

1 MW of power is enough to power the equivalent of 750 average homes so this project when running at full dispatch would produce enough power for almost 4,000 homes. It may only be in the ballpark of 5% of total power used by WDW during peak daytime hours, but it's still a lot more than a simple PR move. Not a bad start.

 

[Kevin_W]

Five MegaWatts.

The average home in Florida uses 14.33 MegaWatts per year.

So yes, this is just a drop in the bucket. But its a start.

That's not what the link says - 14.33 MegaWatt-Hours. A watt is a rate, not a total amount of energy. So a 5MW plant could power an average Florida home for a year by running for 3 hours. Or, in round numbers ~1000 homes per year as the article says.

We might be talking about ~5% of the total energy usage of WDW. That's substantially more than a drop in the bucket.

 

[Rob562]

One would think that its going to go somewhere near existing power lines. Thanks for the approximation.

If you look at the map posted by @ABQ earlier in the thread, you can see a dirt access road heading west from near the World Drive/Epcot Center Drive intersection. About halfway down this dirt road is a clearing with a cell tower and also the point where the above-ground power lines that come from the power plant go underground on their way to Epcot. (Presumably once underground the lines follow this dirt road until after World Drive)

It would be feasible and cost-efficient to build the new solar field in close proximity to this existing infrastructure...

-Rob

 

[englanddg]

That's not what the link says - 14.33 MegaWatt-Hours. A watt is a rate, not a total amount of energy. So a 5MW plant could power an average Florida home for a year by running for 3 hours. Or, in round numbers ~1000 homes per year as the article says.

We might be talking about ~5% of the total energy usage of WDW. That's substantially more than a drop in the bucket.

Well, sortof. Mind you, I haven't read the article yet (will do so in a minute).

The part of the issue with electrical production isn't the actual production part, it's the storage of it.

This is why if a major substation goes out (or a series of them, as what happened to the northeast about a decade ago) whole areas can go black quickly. The grid produces and distributes electricity, efficiently (for the most part) and with redundancy (for the most part), but the grid is NOT capable of efficient power storage.

So, saying that a power station can "produce enough to power an average Florida home for a year by running 3 hours" is a bit inaccurate. More accurate would be it could power 1000 homes per hour, depending on peak usage, until it is removed from the grid due to lack of generating capacity or a general shutdown / separation.