The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center is a

photovoltaic power station A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

in Arcadia, DeSoto County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, owned by

Florida Power & Light Florida Power & Light Company (FPL), the principal subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc. (formerly FPL Group, Inc.), is the largest power utility in Florida. It is a Juno Beach, Florida-based power utility company serving roughly 5 million customer ...

(FPL). President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

attended the plant's commissioning on October 27, 2009. It has a

nameplate capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, maximum effect or gross capacity,watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s (MW), and produces an estimated 42,000 megawatt hours (MW·h) of electricity per year (an average output of about 4.8 MW). The plant cost $150 million to construct. The plant consists of over 90,000

SunPower SunPower Corporation is an American provider of photovoltaic solar energy generation systems and battery energy storage products, primarily for residential customers. The company, headquartered in San Jose, California, was founded in 1985 b ...

solar panels with single-axis trackers on . FPL has to get a permit for construction of the second stage and had filed for the permit to build the third stage of the plant. At the second stage, 49 MW of capacity will be added. At the third stage, 226 MW of capacity is planned to be added bringing the total capacity of the plant up to 300 MW.

Production

See also