Huge McDavid Solar Farm Project Gets County Development Approval

November 26, 2019

The Escambia County Development Review Committee has granted its approval for the Cotton Creek Creek Solar Energy Center , a huge solar farm planned for McDavid.

At 74.2 megawatts, the Gulf Power solar farm will generate enough electricity to power 15,000 homes annual, according to Gulf Power. By comparison, Gulf Power’s largest solar field at Saufley Field is 50 megawatts.

“Gulf Power has been securing the necessary permits and approvals for Cotton Creek Solar Energy Center in northern Escambia County and at this time we do not have a projected construction timeline for this site,” Kimberly Blair, Gulf Power spokesperson, told NorthEscambia.com.

The Escambia County development order allows 18 month for a building permit to be obtained, and a time can extension of up to 12 months can be granted. The order does not authorize site development to commence; a valid Escamiba County building permit must be obtained prior to any building construction.

NorthEscambia.com was first to report last December that facility was planned for West Bogia Road. Documents show the project to be about 640 acres, only 353.18 acres of which will be disturbed.

The development is planned for an area north of West Bogia Road between South Pine Barren Road and Highway 29, just west of Ray’s Chapel Baptist Church. There are currently no structures on the project property.

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 previously filed documents.

Once the project makes it through the permitting process, it is expected to create 200-250 jobs during peak construction, according to Gulf Power.

Last week, Gulf Power announced the installation of the first solar panels at Blue Indigo Solar Energy Center in Jackson County, its first wholly owned and operated solar energy center that is under construction on nearly 700 acres. It is nearly identical in generation capacity to the facility planned for McDavid.

Once completed, approximately 300,000 solar panels will capture energy from the sun to generate 74.5 megawatts at Blue Indigo – enough to power approximately 15,000 homes annually and prevent emissions equivalent to removing 12,000 cars from the road every year. In addition, the new solar energy center is expected to save customers millions of dollars in avoided fuel and other costs over the long term.

Gulf Power is also developing another solar energy center in Jackson County — Blue Springs Solar Energy Center — which will add another 74.5 megawatts of energy to the electric grid.

Comments

4 Responses to “Huge McDavid Solar Farm Project Gets County Development Approval”

  1. A-Trump on November 28th, 2019 7:19 pm

    This is literaly gonna be behind my house how do i go about landing a job thers no way i could ever be late just a short trek threw the woods round back and im ther

  2. H.Rogers on November 27th, 2019 1:47 pm

    I think this will be great for our area. I wish there were someway to install these solar panels using less land like on a tree like tower with longer branches on bottom and tapering off the higher up you go then flip the one next to it so you could get them closer together.

  3. JR on November 26th, 2019 7:02 pm

    Have to wonder, who will pay for this? Ratepayers?

  4. deBugger on November 26th, 2019 8:00 am

    ÜberKEWL.

    That Is All.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News