You can bet this developer is counting on Florida's reputation as the Sunshine State.

Kitson & Partners has announced plans to build Babcock Ranch, Florida (rendering shown), which it describes as the "first city to provide for its energy needs from the sun via the largest solar photovoltaic energy facility generating system powering any city in the world." The $2 billion, 17,800-acre project will be located near Fort Myers, in the southwest part of the state.

The developer, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, expects Babcock Ranch to be the first carbon-neutral city in the country and will power the development with an on-site, 350-acre, 75-megawatt solar-photovoltaic facility that will be built and operated by Florida Power & Light. Power will be distributed via a smart grid to the planned 19,500 homes and 6 million square feet of retail, light-industrial, and office space, which the developer envisions as a "center of new green collar jobs in research, development and implementation of renewable energy technologies."—Steven H. Saltzman | e-mail | Twitter