In February 2015, construction began on the Florida Power and Light Manatee Education Center. It will include exhibits and meeting space, a boardwalk, and a manatee web cam. Solar energy FPL began its program Solar for Schools in 2013 and has installed solar arrays at more than 100 schools and non-profit educational centers across Florida. FPL started the SolarNow program, which installs community solar panels throughout Florida, in 2015. FPL customers can voluntarily contribute to the program. FPL has pushed against net metering and sought to impose minimum monthly payments, facility charges, and grid access fees for rooftop solar energy users. FPL argued that the net metering policy in its present form unfairly required customers who do not own rooftop solar panels to subsidize the energy usage of those who do own them, whereas FPL's opponents argued that utilities like FPL were simply trying to curtail the expansion of rooftop solar panels to maintain their monopoly on electricity markets. Controversy According to records obtained by the Miami Herald and Floodlight, in 2021 FPL lobbied for a bill against net metering, the policy allowing rooftop solar panel users to offset the cost of solar panels by selling excess power back to utilities like FPL. Internal emails indicated that on October 18 an FPL lobbyist sent the text of the bill to Florida state senator Jennifer Bradley, who on October 20 received a $10,000 donation from FPL's parent company to her political committee, and a month later filed the bill in the senate. Bradley denied that the filing of the bill was due to the donation. According to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, several of the top utility companies in Florida, including FPL, have contributed over $12 million towards the election campaigns of state lawmakers since 2010. FPL contributed $2 million to promote 2016 Florida Amendment 1, which would have preserved the monopoly of utilities on rooftop solar in Florida. In 2021, records obtained by the Orlando Sentinel tied top FPL executives to the political consultants responsible for the "ghost" candidate scandal, promoting spoiler candidates in key races in order to siphon off votes from Democrats. Documents reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel and the Miami Herald revealed that FPL executives used consultants and shell companies to funnel money to the local news website The Capitolist in order to get pro-utility articles and negative coverage about their political enemies published. An investigation