Disney owns a whole lot of land in Florida, a state that’s known as the sunshine state.
It’s almost a perfect setup for solar power, and it’s why Disney has two solar farms.
So today, let’s take a look at just how much solar energy they’re using, and where
they can go from there.
Disney World and solar have been a notable topic these last few years because in February
of 2019 they flipped the switch on a 270-acre solar farm on the west side of their property.
According to them, the farm is capable of powering two out of their four theme parks,
and in perfect conditions, can power 25% of the entire resort.
It sports over 518,000 solar panels and has a capacity of 50MWh, though due to a recent
deal, that’s going to be expanded to 57MWh.
Now here’s the thing: that’s not actually Disney’s solar farm.
It’s on Disney property, but technically speaking, it was built in partnership with
Origis Energy and Florida Solar 5 LLC, who runs the farm and sells the energy to Reedy
Creek who then sells it to Disney.
Reedy Creek signed a deal to buy that energy for at least the next 20 years.
Similarly, the smaller 5MWh Mickey Mouse solar farm over by Epcot is owned by Duke Energy.
So why does that matter?
Well, when it comes to how much energy the farm is producing and selling, Disney is the
kind of company that would absolutely keep it close to the chest.
However, Reedy Creek is a special district in the state of Florida.
They’re essentially controlled by Disney, but they’re not Disney.
And as a Florida district, their data is publicly available.
So while the numbers aren’t going to be 1:1, since Reedy Creek has some of their own
infrastructure to take care of, we can still get a pretty good idea of how much energy
Disney World is using and where it’s coming from.
Now 2020, for obvious reasons, is an outlier when it comes to utilities, what with the
resort being shut down for a number of months.
So instead I took a look at the 2019 Reedy Creek utility report.
Reedy Creek’s year runs from October to September, so for the purposes of this video,
I just looked at March 2019 to September 2019 since those were the months that the solar
farm was operating.
Reedy Creek sold 712,000 MWh of energy.
In that span of time in which the solar farm was operational, Reedy Creek purchased just
under 80,000 MWh from Florida Solar.
That amounts to just over 11% of the power sold in that timeframe.
And just to visualize it, that’s enough power to keep a town of 7,500 homes running
for an entire year.
It’s a far cry from the 25% that Disney put out in their press releases, but that’s
not out of the ordinary.
After all, even though Florida is the sunshine state, it’d be unrealistic to expect perfect
conditions all the time.
Cloud coverage.
Afternoon rainstorms.
Technical difficulties.
You know… night time.
They all contribute to bringing that number down.
So if we look at that number and decide that a 270-acre solar farm can provide 11.1% of
Disney World and Reedy Creek’s power, then that means a 2,432-acre farm would allow Disney
World to go completely solar.
OK, not really, because solar energy isn’t that simple, but it would certainly cut down
on fossil fuels.
By the way, to visualize a solar farm that large, imagine Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood
Studios, and Animal Kingdom all put together.
Now double it.
See those 8 theme parks?
The solar farm would still be about 250 acres larger, or a whole ninth theme park.
What’s wild is that Disney absolutely has that much land to spare.
That said, building a solar farm that size isn’t necessarily the best way to go about it.
Just like it was pitched in Ellen’s Energy Adventure, you’d want to diversify with
a combination of renewable energy, like solar, wind, geothermal, and water.
Still, more solar power wouldn’t hurt, which is why Disney is investing in it big time.
Most recently, in April of 2021, they announced plans to open two more solar facilities at
Walt Disney World, with a combined 150MWh capacity.
Their goal is to eventually have 40% of the resort's power come from their four solar farms.
If the size of the current farm is any indication, it’ll be another 800-acres of solar panels.
Combined, the four solar farms will have a capacity of 212 MWh.
According to the 2019 report, the resort’s peak energy demand occurred in June, unsurprisingly,
and was measured at 198 MWh.
So theoretically there could be moments where everything attached to that grid at Disney
World is solar powered.
They’re also planning to build a solar facility at Castaway Cay, their island in the Bahamas,
which is expected to provide the resort with around 70% of its power.
They’re also slapping solar panels on top of rides where they’re hidden, and planning
to build solar panel canopies over 9,500 parking spaces at Disneyland Paris.
Will we see a day where the Disney Parks are entirely powered by renewable energy?
Hopefully.
It’d be pretty cool.
It’s not going to happen overnight though, and it’ll take steps like these to get there.