The largest solar power project in OUC history is nearing completion in rural Osceola County. When operational, OUC’s solar capacity will more than double – as will overall renewable energy production. OUC will also be the top solar producer among Florida municipal utilities by a significant margin.
The Harmony II and Storey Bend solar farms, both with 74.5 MW of capacity, will each have more than 180,000 panels on separate 600-acre sites. The farms are anticipated to come online by December 2024.
When completed, OUC will be the sole recipient of the combined 149 MW of clean energy through a 20-year power purchase agreement with Florida Renewable Partners, a division of NextEra Energy, which is building and will operate the farms.
The farms will be connected to the grid via a pair of new OUC substations and transmission lines in the area. Enhanced transmission infrastructure like this is needed to provide reliable electricity to a growing number of customers in rapidly developing Central Florida communities.
The new facilities join OUC’s existing solar energy portfolio, which includes 108.5 MW of capacity at the Taylor Creek and Harmony Solar Energy Centers and 14.4 MW from solar arrays located at OUC’s Stanton Energy Center and Gardenia Innovation & Operations Center. A new floating solar array with 2 MW of capacity, to be located in a Florida Department of Transportation retention pond, is also in the works.
The combined 271.5 MW of solar capacity that OUC has available will be enough to power 50,000 typical Florida homes. (Other renewable energy sources include landfill gas, of which there is 21.3 MW of capacity.)
With the new solar farms, an estimated 12.54% of power generated for OUC customers will be renewable by the end of 2025.
And the utility is far from finished.
Solar is the best renewable energy source available in Florida. OUC has committed $420 million to increasing its solar energy footprint as part of its goal to reach Net Zero CO2 emissions by 2050, with interim targets of 50% reduction by 2030 and 75% by 2040. As part of this sustainability pledge, OUC plans to place the coal-fired Unit 1 at its Stanton Energy Center into cold shutdown by 2025 and convert Unit 2 to natural gas by 2027.
Solar power is key to OUC meeting its goal of Net Zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
Utility-scale projects like these new farms are an efficient and cost-effective way to give more people access to electricity generated by sustainable energy sources.
OUC customers will soon have the option to choose for their electricity use to be powered by solar energy when the utility’s community solar program is relaunched. Now called SunChoice, commercial customers can subscribe starting later in 2024, with the program opening to residential customers in 2025.
SunChoice will help OUC continue to make substantial investments in large-scale solar power generation.
Although panels at the new farms automatically tilt to follow the sun throughout the day and maximize production, production will plummet when cloud coverage occurs. In fact, while Florida is known as the Sunshine State, it should be called the Partly Cloud State as Central Florida experiences about 277 cloudy or partly cloudy days per year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Due to these Interruptions to production, OUC is researching and developing battery energy storage systems – essentially massive batteries – to store electricity produced by solar panels during the day for use when there is cloud cover and at night. Promoting energy efficiency among customers, especially during peak times, is another strategy to reduce electricity demand on the grid and make solar more viable.
