They’re building one in Abu Dhabi, and now southwest Florida will have one too: Their very own solar-powered city. Real estate developer Kitson & Partners, along with Florida Power & Light have announced “the city of tomorrow”, Babcock Ranch:
he plan is to develop 17,000 acres of land into a city consisting of 6 million square feet of commercial, retail, office and light industrial space and about 20,000 houses, where all of them are certified as energy efficient and built according to Florida Green Building Council standards, all of the electrical transmission is part of an integrated smart grid, and (ta da!) it’s all powered by a 75 MW solar power plant. The total bill: $2 billion for the whole project, $300 million of that for the solar power plant
Half of the land within the city will be set aside for greenways and open space, and the entire thing is sited next to the 73,000 acre Babcock Ranch Preserve. Project developers claim that 20,000 new permanent jobs will be created by Babcock Ranch. Construction on the city, which in total is larger than the island of Manhattan, is expected to begin in 2010, with construction on the solar power plant beginning later this year.
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so-called “green” but lacking an eco-friendly public transport system (think of electric trains)? HUGE FAIL.