Florida’s well-earned state motto, “The Sunshine State” will soon have another reason to ‘energize’ meeting planners. The Orange County Convention Center, in partnership with the Orlando Utilities Commission, a public utility providing water and electric service to the City of Orlando & Orange County—has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the state of Florida to be used, along with other funding sources, to install a one-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system—also known as a solar panel. In fact, it is considered the largest solar panel project of its kind in the Southeastern United States. The panel  (pictured above) will be completed by May 19, in time for the Green Cities Florida 2009 conference at the Center. The PV system utilizes high-efficiency, flat-plate collectors that occupy approximately 200,000 square feet of roof space on the North/South Building and will generate 1,300-megawatt hours of electricity per year (the equivalent to the power used by 100 typical homes), and it will do so without producing any greenhouse gas emissions. The Orange County Convention Center, the second largest convention facility in the country, hosts than 200 events and attracts an estimated 1.4 million attendees annually.