MARATHON -- onhed goes here

In the Florida Keys this week, the sun contributed to more than warmth, tans and pretty days.

For the first time, it provided clean energy for the nonprofit electric utility that powers the northern half of Monroe County.

Going green with this nearly $1 million solar project, however, will not produce much power or cheap power for the Florida Keys Electric Cooperative Association.

Cooperative CEO Scott Newberry said he expects the solar power produced from this project to provide less than 1 percent of the cooperative's annual usage of about 700 million kilowatt hours.

The power also will cost about 40 cents per 1,000-watt hour, four times more than the wholesale cost of electricity purchased from Florida Power & Light Co.

''But this project works well for us,'' Newberry said. ``A lot of our members are very environmentally conscious. We live in an environmentally sensitive area. And people are highly interested in green technology.''

John Nettles, owner of Port St. Lucie-based Nettles Electric that is installing the cooperative's solar arrays, said the two-phase project is the second largest in Florida.

The largest was completed in February in Sarasota -- a 1,200-panel array that covers about half a football field and is expected to power about 55 homes.

That project was the first funded by FPL's Sunshine Energy program, in which customers voluntarily donate to green power.

The Keys' project has an array of 552 solar panels in Marathon and will have another 120 panels installed on nearby Crawl Key, which together will produce about 150,000 kilowatt hours of power annually -- enough to power about 13 homes.

Newberry said the small cooperative, just 31,000 accounts, decided to do this major project for two practical reasons:

• To research the efficiency of solar power in the Keys.

• To plan for the possibility of a state mandate for utilities to provide 20 percent of energy in the form of renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal by 2020.

Monroe County's other electric utility, Keys Energy Service that serves Key West and the lower Keys, also plans a solar project on a two-acre lot on Big Pine Key.

Newberry said that solar power will never be a practical way for either Keys' utility to provide 20 percent of its power due to the lack of land.

''There's no way we could do it,'' Newberry said.

''The whole Keys would be shaded,'' Nettles chimed in.

Newberry and Nettles say they hope the project will generate interest in individual homeowners and businesses going solar in the Keys.

''As a utility, we can educate ourselves on what solar does and what people can get from it,'' Newberry said. ``We will provide that information to our membership as well so they can make better decisions on solar if they decide to go that way.''

Currently there are five members of the cooperative who use solar panels to power their homes. They are hooked into the cooperative's electric system with a special meter that keeps tracks of energy they take from the system and solar energy they produce that is put back into the system.

They pay for the net difference, said Rebecca Callahan, spokeswoman for the cooperative.

Environmental activist John Hammerstrom of Key Largo said his 2,500-watt solar system, which cost about $16,000 after a rebate, has produced enough energy a few months that he has received a credit from the cooperative. He said he produces about 40 percent of his overall use annually.

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