Florida’s only rice mill, owned by Florida Crystals Corporation in western Palm Beach County, is now converting sunlight to renewable energy for its operations via its 900-panel solar array and the first Tesla Megapack battery in operation in the state of Florida.
Prior to this investment, Florida Crystals was already incredibly more than 80 percent powered by renewable energy companywide, which includes its agricultural and industrial operations as well as its corporate offices and fleet, by leveraging its advantage as one of America’s largest growers of sugarcane. Sugarcane is one of the planet’s most effective plants at capturing carbon and using it as food to grow. In the process, sugarcane produces more valuable plant fiber, or biomass, than any other crop. Florida Crystals uses its biomass as fuel to generate the clean, green energy that powers its operations.
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Florida Crystals is now expanding its investment in and commitment to renewable energy by utilizing the sun in a new way. Its solar array and Tesla battery at its Sem Chi Rice Mill in Belle Glade are also moving the company closer to its goal to become carbon neutral.
“Our solar project is an amazing complement to how Florida Crystals is already powered,” said Andy Sauber, Sr. Director of Sustainability. “The majority of the power for our operations already comes from the sun because our main fuel source is our own sugarcane fiber, which grows by converting and storing energy from sunlight. This new investment at our rice mill is literally making us even more solar-powered than we already are, but instead of storing the energy in our plants, we are utilizing a Tesla Megapack battery.”
The solar photovoltaic system and the Megapack — Tesla’s utility-scale battery — work in tandem: the solar panels provide power to the rice mill and charge the battery during the day, and the battery then supplies power to the rice mill after dark.
SOURCE: PR Newswire