Audubon of Florida Executive Director Eric Draper was a featured speaker at the opening of FPL's newest solar energy installment, located in Martin County. The array features over 190,000 mirrors that concentrate the sun's rays by 80%. That heat is then used to boil water, which in turn creates steam that is used to generate 75 megawatts of power, or enough to serve 11,000 Florida homes.

Besides being 75 million dollars under budget, the new plant is the first in the world to be hooked up to an existing natural gas power plant and will save customers an estimated $178 million in fuel costs over its lifetime.

Congratulations Florida - it can be done!

Watch Executive Director Eric Draper's speech at the opening ceremony here: