For years, students and clean energy advocates have been pushing Miami-Dade County Public Schools to install solar panels in a city seen globally as emblematic of the threats posed by climate change
On Thursday, MDCPS unveiled a 114-panel solar array at MAST@FIU — a magnet high school on the university’s Biscayne Bay campus. According to school officials, the installation is the first of its kind in the district.
“Imagine a school, a community or a nation where carbon-based energy sources have been replaced with clean, affordable energy from the sun or other renewable sources,” said MAST@FIU Principal Matthew Welker. “That's the promise the solar canopy creates in the minds of all those who visit the school.”
Miami is one of the country's most vulnerable cities to climate-related problems, including sea level rise, extreme heat, strong tropical storms and threats to vulnerable wildlife such as manatees. Last month, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told a global climate conference in Miami Beach that the area has more days of extreme heat than anywhere else in the U.S.
This week’s extreme weather — which brought torrential rains and dangerous flash floods to South Florida — cleared long enough for officials from the school district, FIU and Florida Power and Light to show off the 34.2 kilowatt capacity installation during an event Thursday morning. FPL donated the array to the school.
According to district staff, the array at MAST@FIU will generate about 5-10% of the high school’s overall energy needs.
MDCPS Superintendent Jose Dotres says students at the school will get to track the panels’ output and run experiments.
“It's like the best of both worlds, right?” he said. “The structure is saving energy, really teaching students the importance of the environment … but actually incorporating it into how it can be used by teachers in instruction and almost like a lab setting. So it’s really, really significant.”
According to a study by clean energy advocacy group Generation180, the number of schools installing solar across the U.S. has grown quickly in recent years. As of 2022, roughly one in every 10 American schools uses solar power.
Energy costs are second only to personnel costs for MDCPS, according to a report by the school system's Clean Energy Task Force. The price tag has totaled more than $65 million in fiscal year 2022 alone, according to district numbers.
As the largest school district in the state and the fourth largest in the country, MDCPS has a massive building footprint and is a major utility customer for FPL.
Clean energy advocates have been calling on the district to lease its rooftops to FPL for solar production — to help the school system meet its stated goal of achieving 100% clean energy by 2030.
Though FPL has committed to installing 30 million solar panels by 2030, MDCPS’s lofty clean energy goal is nearly impossible because of the utility’s reliance on natural gas, , according to the Miami Herald.
FPL has also pushed legislation to undercut rooftop solar development.
“We're always looking for opportunities to grow our support for education and to help shape and motivate the future leaders of this community,” FPL’s Miami-Dade External Affairs Director Armando Fernandez said at Thursday’s event.
“Projects like this are the latest example of the strong, long-standing partnership between Miami-Dade County Public Schools, FIU and Florida Power and Light.”
Asked why the district didn’t install a school solar array earlier, MDCPS Chief Sustainability Officer Karly Pulido said it’s a matter of priorities.
“I really think there's a lot of awareness and education that needs to be put out there when it comes to what the power of renewable energy is,” Pulido said. “I think deciding what to do next really comes from what kind of funding we have available.”
Pulido says the district plans to roll out more solar installations and is assessing the age and suitability of rooftops and other potential sites.
MDCPS also recently signed onto FPL's "SolarTogether" program, a kind of subscription service where customers pay additional fees to get credits for solar power that the utility generates elsewhere.
Though the sky was clear and blue on Thursday morning, Pulido says this week’s massive storms — which shut down Broward County Public Schools — underscore the need for MDCPS to prepare for the staggering impacts of climate change.
“I think the continuity of this last storm and how it was just nonstop … I don't think we're all prepared for that. And these are adaptations and risks that we need to evaluate moving into the future,” she said. “We need to adapt. Look where we are.”
