The largest solar plant in the United States may soon go live in Florida, being able to generate 25-megawatts.
Workers and engineers have worked for almost a year to build the biggest solar plant in the United States, where a bit earlier we could only see open land. The solar plant is already built and now they are testing it, but soon the tests will be complete and the entire facility will start producing energy.
The Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center will be able to convert sunlight into 25-megawatts of power, being able to generate two times more the power of the second-largest solar plant in the US.
Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center
It is scheduled to go live on Tuesday and President Barack Obama will visit the facility on the launch day.
Fortunately, this facility won’t be the largest for too long, because another projects in Nevada and California will be able to eclipse it.
“We took a chance at it and it worked out. There’s a lot of backyard projects, there’s a lot of rooftop projects, post offices and stores. Really this is one of the first times where we’ve taken a technology and upsized it,” said Greg Bove, the Desoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center’s construction manager.
The plant is located 80 miles southeast from Tampa and it covers 180 acres of land. It cost $150 million to build and it can supply power to over 3,000 houses. It required over 400 employees to build it, though there will only be a few employees to run it.
Wow, 25 megawatts! What a cool plant. I hadn’t heard that such a massive project had been launched. That’s really cool.