On energy, Sunshine State lives up to its name

Florida Power & Light last week announced plans to build Florida's first large-scale solar thermal power plant, which will be one of the world's largest.

The 300-megawatt facility is part of a $2.4-billion FPL investment aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions. Besides the $1.5 billion Florida facility, that investment also includes another 200 megawatts of solar thermal power tentatively slated for California, $500 million to help its 4.5 million customers better manage their power use, and $400 million over five years for a nationwide education program, the St. Petersburg Times reports.

The announcement was a decidedly bipartisan affair, made by Republican Gov. Charlie Crist in New York with former President Bill Clinton and movie star do-gooder Brad Pitt by his side, according to the paper:

"Producing solar energy in the Sunshine State just makes sense," Crist told the crowd at at the Clinton Global Initiative, which draws world leaders, celebrities and scholars for three days of panel discussions and smaller working sessions on global issues and asks them to take concrete steps on those causes.

Crist thanked FPL and Clinton, one of the best-known Democrats in the nation, "for making the world better and helping my state. God bless you."

FPL Energy is already the nation's largest generator of solar power through its operations at the Solar Electric Generating System in California's Mojave Desert, pictured above. For more details about the company's solar program and to learn how solar plants work, click here.