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641 Acre Solar Farm Planned For McDavid, Large Enough To Power 14,000 Homes
December 11, 2018
A solar farm large enough to power over 14,000 homes is in the planning stages for West Bogia Road in McDavid.
Florida Renewable Partners (FRP), a wholly-owned subsidiary of NextEra Energy, is seeking permits to construct a 74.5 megawatt facility known currently as the “Escambia County Solar Energy Center” on 541 acres along and just north of West Bogia Road, according to documents obtained by NorthEscambia.com.
By comparison, Gulf Power’s largest solar field at Saufley Field is 50 megawatts, enough to power almost 7,400 homes. Gulf Power is not involved in the proposed McDavid project; however NextEra is currently in the process of purchasing Gulf Power as part of a $6.475 billion deal.
“The facility will generate clean, renewable energy by converting sunlight via photovoltaic solar panels into direct current (DC) electricity. The direct current flows from the panels through inverters and is converted into alternating current (AC) used by local electric utilities. Finally, the electricity travels through transformers, and the voltage is boosted for delivery onto the transmission lines so the local electric utility can distribute the zero-emissions electricity to homes and businesses,” according to a document filed with the Escambia County Development Review Committee by FRP.
The development is planned for an area behind and north of existing homes on West Bogia Road between South Pine Barren Road and Highway 29. A small portion of the project area includes land north and south of West Bogia Road, surrounding Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church (map below). There are currently no homes on the project property.
The area, owned by RMS Timberlands, is zoned as agriculture and is currently used for timber growth.
No water or sewer infrastructure will be necessary to serve the development, and no habitable space will be constructed. The facility will be monitored remotely and will not require onsite personnel for day-to-day operation, but personnel will occasionally visit the site to conduct required maintenance activities, according to FRP documents.
The Escambia County Solar Energy Center is entering the pre-application process with Escambia County and faces numerous steps before being permitted.
The project area does not included land purchased by Gulf Power in 2009 for a possible nuclear power plant that was never constructed.
Photo and image for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Comments
22 Responses to “641 Acre Solar Farm Planned For McDavid, Large Enough To Power 14,000 Homes”
Solar energy is a great option for our area. I’m excited to take part and begin using renewable energy. Like it or not, fossil fuels are running out and we will still want to use electricity a few dozen years from now.
Seems to be a lot of misinformation around solar energy. Here in NW Florida, we get about 5.1 “sun hours” per day on an annual average so solar is a great option because the resource is available. My 5kW solar system generates about 86% of my 2800SF home’s demand. I installed it in 2009 and next year I’ll recoup my initial investment and the panels are rated for another 20 years with minimal degradation (about 1% per year). Today’s 330W panels are much more efficient than the 250W panels that were available when I installed them AND the cost has come down by 50%. Most of the country has embraced solar just based on economics. Coal is dying thanks mainly to lower natural gas prices, but renewables will be the nail in the coffin.
Now did we vote last year on solar power? Did it not get turned down? So now what is good for the goose (liberials) is good for the gander (conservatives) correct? I want solar panels. Not just to sell the power back to the power company but to put money back in my pocket. Florida is getting as bad as Colorado and other liberal states.
I’ll just leave this here:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikescott/2018/11/21/want-the-cheapest-electricity-build-solar-and-wind-farms-not-coal-power-plants/#7dd2286566ce
A hurricane would tear the place up for sure. I wonder what the insurance would cost?
Great, we need more renewable energy. Now if only erec would get its head out of the sand and embrace cheaper and cleaner solar power. But they would actually have to care about they’re rate payers to try to save them money, so can’t see it happening soon. Maybe someday they will be bought out like gulf power is now then we can join the 21st century in this area.
Nuclear power would be much cheaper to build for if the fearmongers and enviro-whackos were to simply get out of the way and let the experienced engineers and scientists get their jobs done rather than stay tied up in court battles, enriching attorneys. The U.S. Navy has many decades of safely operating nuclear reactors.
It’s a shame this land couldn’t be used to restore more longleaf pine habitat, which would benefit wildlife. Keep the solar farms out west where nothing will grow and there’s more sunshine.
Even on cloudy days,heat is produced, maybe it can be used for steam to tuen turbo s>???????
Wonder if this was prompted by a deadline for spending federal renewable energy grant funds. Solar isn’t cheaper than coal fueled generators so other than being forced to spend grant money or seeking good optics with our area before they gut Gulf Power’s personnel, there’s no business reason for NextEra aka Florida Power and Light to build this.
GRATE !!!!!!
Keep it going
Wonder if i could herd my sheep there to keep the grass down and they would have shelter at night.
Maintenance is pretty much employee free but they will need people for construction and clearing of the land so good news for some workers in our area.
Hopefully, mic, this is a renewable energy source.
Solar power isn’t just for sunny days, anymore. They have these things called batteries!
Investment tip: utility grade battery manufacturers.
Will this power go to your house? Probably not if you are an EREC customer. You know, those of us who live near the solar farm! EREC hates solar, saying that it is dangerous and expensive.
Half days of sunshine is still producing power… better than nothing. You have to start someplace.
it is actually 60% sunshine
Great location, right on a power line. Ironically, it will be right near 2 existing private solar installations, which are so rare in this area.
Gulf Power needs to put in a solar farm at their nuke site on Camp Rd. It would put the land into power production and maybe they’ll then decide they don’t need the nuke after all.
Solar is now the cheapest form of power plant to build and operate.
Nice! It’s unfortunate no full time employee will be needed onsite but clean energy is still a win.
Clean energy is great, but as the county grows,wildlife has less and less habitat.
640 acres equals about a square mile of land . Not much when considering
the added Megawatts produced. Only questions are does a Solar farm
of that size have any affect on humans,livestock,lakes,creeks, reception of
signals such as cell,tv,radio etc. another question is how ambient temperatures
are affected in the areas around the Solar Farm. Doubt there’d be a decrease in
power bill for anyone. Just the Utilities getting more megawatts to sell without
Fossil Fuel being used. Solar seems very good but only works when the Sun is
in the ON position…..bout 1/2 a day ?
Really! In NWF? We have a 50% plus cloudy days per year. So half of the year the panels will produce nearly no power. For those of you who do not have panels they produce little or no power on cloudy days. The panels need cloud free skys to produce anywhere near their capacity and in our area that is less than half the year.
Basically this is just to claim non-renewable energy sources.