Duke Energy Florida has big plans in Osceola County. The company announced plans to build a new 3.8-megawatt solar facility in Osceola County, the first of Duke’s long-range plan to install 35 megawatts of solar by 2018 and up to 500 megawatts in Florida by 2024.
The Osceola facility is expected to be built on 17 acres of a larger 25-acre parcel owned by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEF) on Canoe Creek Road in Kenansville. The larger parcel includes the Canoe Creek transmission substation, owned and operated by DEF. The existing substation will allow the new solar facility to be connected to the grid without additional easements or extensive line construction.
Duke Energy’s new solar facilities will complement a new combined-cycle natural gas plant to be built in Citrus County, an upgrade of a combined-cycle energy complex in Polk County and the purchase of the Osprey Energy Center, also in Polk County.
The projects will allow the company to not only meet the need for additional energy for its customers beginning in 2018, but also to retire half of its Florida coal-fired fleet by that same year.
Construction of the Osceola Solar Facility will begin once permits are approved. The facility is expected to be on line in early 2016.
Orlando Business Journal 10/1/2015
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