America's First Solar-Powered Town

This Could Be America's First Solar-Powered Town

It's accepting new residents.

By David Grossman

 Babcock RanchBABCOCK RANCH

A new solar-powered town in Florida has already built a restaurant, a school and a community gathering space. Now in 2018, Babcock Ranch is adding something even more important: residents.


Below Tampa and Orlando, about half an hour northeast from the tourist attractions of Fort Myers, Babcock Ranch is built on and 18,000-acre expanse and hopes to have 19,500 homes and 50,000 residents within 20 to 25 years. Its first residents moved in January 4th.

While building a town is a multi-faceted project that no one person could accomplish, Babcock Ranch is the brainchild of one man: Syd Kitson, a Florida developer. "In 2005," the town's website states, Kitson "set out to prove that smart growth and preservation could work hand in hand."

Originally used for logging and agriculture by Edward Vose Babcock, a lumber baron and mayor of Pittsburgh in the early 20th century, the land became known as the Babcock Nature Preserve. In 2006, Babcock's heirs eventually sold the land to Kitson, who beat out the state of Florida in the bidding. He sold most of the land to the state and used the rest to create Babcock Ranch. At the time, Kitson told the New York Times, "This is how I’m going to change the world.”

Now that vision, complete with self-driving solar-powered shuttle buses, is becoming a reality. A small three bedroom goes for $195,000, while a four-bedroom, two-story house for around $750,000.


Babcock Ranch spokeswoman Lisa Hall and dog Alpha aboard one of the town’s driverless shuttles.
GETTYKERRY SHERIDAN

"We want to be the most sustainable new town in the United States," Kitson now tells CBS. "We had the advantage of a green field, a blank sheet of paper. When you have a blank sheet of paper like this, you really can do it right from the beginning."

The town is still finding its footing working between the latest solar tech and economics. There are a myriad number of ways to store solar energy for when the sun isn't available, ranging from flow batteries to hydrogen, Babcock Ranch uses none of them. Commercializing the tech is too expensive at the moment, Kitson says, so the town will be connected to the traditional electrical grid. That grid will run the town at night as well as on cloudy days.

 
The town’s 343,000 solar panels.
BABCOCK RANCH

Kitson promises that the rapid change to solar energy, deemed the world's cheapest source of power in 2016, won't effect anyone's bills. "The people here pay the exact same amount that everybody else pays in the Florida Power and Light network," Kitson tells CBS.

For now, Babcock Ranch is trying to be like any other town. With a focus on clean energy and STEM, its K-6 school has become the envy of the area. Its website highlights weekly yoga classes and hikes.

But for the first residents, there are couple of unique perks. When Richard and Robin Kinley became the first residents to move in, they tell CBS, their home was by a lake. Now that lake's name is Lake Kinley.

Source: CBS