South Miami To Run On 100 Percent Renewable Energy By 2040

In an effort to see what it would be like to live life purely off solar energy, South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard went “off the grid” for one whole week and lived entirely on energy from the solar panels attached to the roof of his home.

Stoddard, a champion of solar energy and green living, a longtime critic of Florida Power and Light and a Florida International University biologist, told the Miami Herald last month he disconnected from the power grid as a “trial run” for potential outages during the 2019 hurricane season.

“I wanted to see how the system would function during a prolonged power outage,” Stoddard told the Miami Herald. “And I wanted to show a skeptical world that the technology works.”

His venture proved to be a success, so Stoddard decided he wanted to take the entire city with him. As of yesterday, May 7, the South Miami City Commission unanimously passed a resolution saying the city will transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy by the year 2040.

“South Miami’s new commitment to a 100 percent clean and renewable energy supply community-wide is the natural extension of our history of commitment to the planet, our children, and the natural world,” Stoddard said in a media release, reported by the Miami New Times.

By: Maytinee Kramer