Babcock Ranch | Solar Powered Towns of the Future

After watching a piece that ran on CBS Sunday Morning I was inspired to research more about the sustainable town.

Babcock Ranch, located about a half an hour from Fort Myers, Florida, is the first solar powered town to be constructed in the United States. It will accommodate 50,000 people through the construction of 20,000 homes, a restaurant, a school and community gathering building.

This project is the idea of a single man, Syd Kitson. He is the CEO of Kitson & Partners, a private Florida based real-estate company. The project took 10 years of engineering and planning. Kitson has stated the idea came to him back in 2005, he purchased 91,000 acres in 2006, but sold 73,000 acres back to the state of Florida to establish a permanent nature reserve. In October of 2015 Kitson & Partners broke ground for the placement of 300,000 solar panels on 440 acres of the area. This January the first residents of Babcock Ranch moved in, Richard and Robin Kinley. The lake next to their home is named after them, a perk even the second residents of the project will receive.

Excess solar power not used by the community flows back into the grid. On overcast days and at night, homes in Babcock Ranch draw from this traditional grid for power. Kitson admits storing the surplus solar energy generated during the day is still too expensive for the project.

Surprisingly the construction of the sustainable homes and buildings throughout the community are not much more expensive to construct than their regular counterparts. A 3-bedroom house will run you about $195,000.

In addition to solar power, Babcock Ranch also boasts of driverless shuttles and fiber optics throughout the community. The self-driving shuttles operate on set routes that you can schedule with an app on your smartphone. Babcock Ranch partnered with CenturyLink to install one Gigabit -the equivalent of 1,000 megabits- of fiber optic connectivity in every home and business in the community.

Despite the push for solar power, I believe the project is not taking full advantage of its potential. There is no requirement for solar panels on the roofs of homes. It is an option, and all builders for the project offer it; however, I think it is odd that it is not something that is required.

If you want to learn more check out these articles:

Babcock Ranch website for detailed information about the community: https://www.babcockranch.com/

Thank you for reading!

-Jenna

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