Oct. 26--One of the most modern electrical plants in Florida is being built in increments of 305 watts, which isn't enough power to toast a slice of bread.

When it's done, however, the Brevard County plant will be powerful enough to run a whole bakery, and then some.

A gang of about two-dozen workers is erecting 500 solar panels a day at the Space Coast Next Generation Solar Energy Center, a project started recently by Florida Power & Light Co. at Kennedy Space Center. But the workers are improving their rhythm and their dexterity with the system's stainless-steel nuts and bolts, mounting brackets, power wrenches and aluminum-body panels.

"We'll get up to 700, 800 [panels] a day," said Mike Arroyo, a superintendent with subcontractor HyPower Inc., who said he won't need additional labor.

When the work is done next spring, the 60-acre plant will have 37,664 black-faced panels, each with a 305-watt output. But with the panels collectively facing the southern sky, they will generate enough to power 1,100 homes.

Such is the look of Florida's up-and-comer type of power plant, fueled by the sun's rays, seemingly high-tech, and yet as basic to build as an assembly line taking on an erector set.

Compare it with the construction of vastly more complex power plants fired by coal. They require enormous cranes, huge quantities of steel and concrete, and highly skilled trades, such as welders who perform metallurgical surgery.

Meanwhile, the FPL solar plant, on Merritt Island near KSC's south security gate on State Road 3, has building requirements that are uncomplicated and repetitive and doable by a work force that will peak at about 100 people. To be fair, the work done so far requires precision alignment of panel edges over long distances.

"It's flying along very well," said Shawn Creel, a laborer for Newkirk Electric Associates Inc. The 28-year-old Creel of Cape Canaveral had been seeking a NASA job but wound up with work he thinks has a bright future. "It's a bunch of guys here who had never met, but we're looking like we we've been working together for 10 to 15 years," he said.

FPL's prime contractor, California-based SunPower Corp., started site clearing in June, scraping away aging citrus groves and other vegetation to create a table-flat surface and ensure that no shadows would be cast across the panels.

"It broke my heart to have to cut down palm trees," said Ron Bloor, FPL's construction manager.

Next came crews to install 4-inch-diameter steel poles, called piers, in rows called strings.