Causecast

By SHANNON FLAHERTY, Contributing Writer

How apropos that the Sunshine State may be the first in the U.S. to have a solar-powered city.

Visionary developer and former NFL lineman Syd Kitson announced plans yesterday to construct the world’s largest photovoltaic solar plant in a planned, environmentally-friendly city near Fort Myers in southwestern Florida.

Babcock Ranch — “Southwest Florida’s City of Tomorrow” — is designed to break new frontiers in sustainable development, quite a shift for a state that has never been sustainable and lately hasn’t had much development.

Kitson’s realty group Kitson & Partners is teaming up with the Florida utility company, Florida Power & Light. Construction of the city center is scheduled to begin in June 2010 with the first residential and commercial buildings targeted for late 2010.

“Babcock Ranch will be a living laboratory for companies, workers and families ready to reap the rewards of innovation,” Kitson said at a press conference introducing the project. Other power players in attendance at the press conference included representatives from the Audubon Society, the World Wildlife Fund and the Sierra Club.

In addition to having its electricity generated from solar energy, the entire city is expected to have wireless internet, electric-car chargers and other green innovations. Half of the 18,000 acres will remain green space within the new community.

Kitson’s goal is to reduce carbon emissions, oil dependence and energy bills, while turning Babcock Ranch into a mecca for clean-energy research and development, attracting high-tech companies that will provide high-wage jobs.

Among the community of green-building experts making way for more green cities is Causecast member organization Global Green USA, who has been a national leader in championing smart solutions to climate change for more than a decade. Rebuilding areas of New Orleans hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, Global Green has been instrumental in forwarding the construction of green affordable housing and green schools on a national level and beyond. Actor, musician and Causecast leader Lukas Haas supports Global Green in their efforts to raise public awareness about global warming and what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.

To learn more about green-building for cities, schools and affordable housing, visit Global Green’s Green Building site. Maybe there’s enough information out there where we can all build our own green cities, or at least help green the ones we already call home.