Alachua, Putnam counties site of 330,000 new solar panels
A more than 1,200-acre piece of land straddling east Alachua and west Putnam counties will house more than 330,000 solar panels to help provide energy to Florida Power and Light customers throughout the state.
Construction of the approximately $100 million FPL Horizon Solar Energy Center began last month, and is expected to be completed by year’s end, said Alys Daly, a spokeswoman for FPL.
Located just south of State Road 222 and west of State Road 21 off Price Road between Hawthorne and Melrose, the solar farm is one of eight the power company is building as part of one of the largest solar expansions ever in the eastern U.S., Daly said. About 2.5 million solar panels will be installed at the eight solar farms.
“We build our solar energy centers cost-effectively,” Daly said. “That means over the life of the solar farms, which is approximately 30 years, they will generate enough savings that they will basically pay for themselves through fuel-cost reductions that will also save our customers millions of dollars.”
Like the other seven solar farms FPL is building throughout the state, including the Coral Farms Solar Energy Center in Putnam County’s Florahome, the Horizon Center will generate 74.5 megawatts of zeroemissions’ worth of energy when the sun is shining, Daly said. The Coral Farms energy center is scheduled to be completed in Decemeber. The six other solar farms are: Barefoot Bay Solar Energy Center in Brevard County, scheduled to open in March 2018
Blue Cypress Solar Energy and Indian River Solar Energy centers in Indian River County, scheduled to open in March 2018 and December 2017, respectively
Hammock Solar Energy Center in Hendry County, scheduled to open in March 2018
Loggerhead Solar Energy Center in St. Lucie County, scheduled to open in March 2018
Wildflower Solar Energy Center in DeSoto County, scheduled to open in December 2017
The sites are in various stages of early construction, ranging from ground-clearing work to initial infrastructure installation. Currently, FPL has more than 335 megawatts of solargenerating capacity throughout the state, Daly said.