The new Florida Power and Light First City Solar Energy Center near McDavid went online Wednesday.

FPL brought nine other solar farms online Wednesday across the state, including the Blackwater River Solar Energy Center in Santa Rosa County.

The new First City Solar Energy Center, located along Holland, Cox and Roach roads, has more than 223,000 photovoltaic panels with a planned output of 75 megawatts — enough to power about 15,000 homes.  It is the second of three FPL solar farms in North Escambia.

For more photos, click or tap here.

The 300,000 solar panels at the Cotton Creek Solar Energy Center on Bogia Road near McDavid have been in operation since early 2022 and were officially dedicated in March. It produces enough electricity to power about 15,000 homes.

The Sparkleberry Solar Energy Center is planned for 553 acres south of the end of Pilgrim Trail. According to FPL, over 200,000 solar panels will also generate about 75 megawatts. At last report, construction was expected to commence in the summer.

Pictured: The Florida Power and Light First City Solar Energy Center near McDavid went online Wednesday. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

40 Responses to “New FPL Solar Farm In McDavid Is Now Online. It’s The Second Of Three In North Escambia.”

REGARDING: “Petroleum is part of the actual panels the same way lumber is part of a wood porch.”

Except that it isn’t . Solar panels are not composed of petroleum. Even the ethylene vinyl acetate portion is not petroleum. Nor is petroleum necessary as a precursor. Even if it were, the energy equivalent is probably less than one hour’s worth of output expected to last more than twenty-five years. There are no molecules which can not be synthesized without starting with petroleum.

Yes, lumber is part of a wood porch. Lumber is not part of a non-wooden porch.

AND: “the best energy plan for the future is to have less people that need it.”

Nah. Given a finite supply of energy, fewer people using it just extends the time until it is depleted. Sure, too many people can be a problem but it’s a separate problem.

AND: “Hydroelectric and geothermal power are awesome, but are only viable in areas that have rivers and geothermal vents.”

They are good but hydroelectric requires more than just water. You also need elevation change. Maximum energy in foot-pounds is feet of elevation change times pounds of water involved. Geothermal doesn’t require geothermal vents although they are easiest to tap into. Geothermal just has to go deep enough to reach rock hot enough for the demand.

It’s not a bait and switch because the petroleum isn’t just used to provide energy for the manufacturing of the solar panels. Petroleum is part of the actual panels the same way lumber is part of a wood porch. No matter how you slice it, these panels could not exist without petroleum.

Our one and only problem with energy is that there are too many of us for the supply we have. We as a species have to a degree and with some difficulty learned to suppress our war like nature.

We have advanced to a state where we are our own natural predator, we control our population through miens such as education, birth control, family planning, abortion, and largely in part War. So, we have now demonized abortion, made birth control outside of marriage a moral crime, teach children not to listen to their family and fight wars with stocks instead of guns.

In conclusion the best energy plan for the future is to have less people that need it.

I’m glad whales don’t fly, or they’d be falling out of the sky, and my power bill would still be high.

You bring up a few good points.

Solar power only works during the day and wind turbines only work when it is windy. They require batteries for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.

Hydroelectric and geothermal power are awesome, but are only viable in areas that have rivers and geothermal vents.

Nuclear power, especially reactors powered by thorium, are fantastic. However, people are paranoid about nuclear power after events like Fukushima and Chernobyl, so any new nuclear plants are doomed to die in the planning phase.

The best way to reduce our consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels is to reduce our energy consumption AND explore multiple alternatives, including solar.

REGARDING: “Solar works only in the day.”

True but irrelevant. It just means storage is needed some of the time.

“This green energy (no offense to your last name) is terrible”

I agree. I should get some sort of commission!!!!

There is more to making a solar panel than just what oil it takes to make that panel.

There is the fact its made in china. They then ship it here, then the install and maintenance and everything involved. SOLAR will not work long term to provide us with the electricity we need. It will barely cover the cost and labor when rates are very high. Then when they need replacing that cost will roll right back into the user. Thew cheapest is nuclear and then dams. The rate of return is far better and we have a very very large amount of the materials to build those. Solar works only in the day. The batteries needed will be another nightmare of replacement cost.

This green energy (no offense to your last name) is terrible. TERRIBLE in its current form. Its just a money grab that will fail very soon and maybe wiser people will be in charge to FIX the problems.

i love hearing from the “they took errr jobs” crowd.

FPL will raise rates no matter what they do in order show profits.

I love it when Americans complain about deforestation, basically why they have land to begin with.

REGARDING: “That’s a reductionist way of measuring the amount of petroleum involved.”

Probably because I am simple minded. That’s why bait-and-switch seldom works on me. For example: “In a nutshell synthetic polymers are derived from petroleum oil. At the present, no form of energy at a useful scale can function without petroleum”

This has nothing to do with the question of petroleum being needed to produce solar panels.It isn’t. Nor does it even prove synthetic polymers CAN NOT be made without petroleum. They can. Petroleum IS used because it is currently the cheapest way — unless natural gas is. Regardless, it is not required to manufacture a power source and that was the original claim.

@Florida logger Hey bud Rep’s are in charge here just thought you should know.

Just got my email from F(lorida)P(lunder)&L(oot) with the new rate hike info so when do I start seeing any savings from these 3 solar plants? DeSantis comes up with a 114.8-billion-dollar budget but curbing the greed of the power company didn’t come up once? Wonder how much they are contributing to his future presidential campaign.

Capt tom no trees harmed what about the thousand acres that was clear cutt so they add these panels I personally hope it fails and a tornado rips through it like knives in hot butter they take free energy from the sun and still charge y’all a electric bill democrats lol

As usual, there is a whole lot of ignorance in these comments.

Solar panels do take up space, but significantly less per kilowatt than something like natural gas, petroleum, or coal.

FPL isn’t raising rates because they need to pay for solar panels. They are raising rates because they want to make a profit for their shareholders. Last year, FPL had a profit of $3.7 billion. That’s where your increased power payments have been going.

To hell with FPL all they do is increase rates month after month after month. Service is slow but the greedy bastards have no problem getting increases when ever they want them.

My 30 panels went on line today Now even if FPL goes out of business so I can still have a lights on. P.S. No trees were harmed. But then again I don’t think they are when FPL puts them on a farmers idle field either.

Would you rather have giant subdivisions, people, and traffic?

I’m no fan of FPL, but that land was relatively cheap, and it was a matter of time before someone who could afford it bought it and did what they wanted with it.

Same folks saying Dollar General can develop their private property are now crying about FPL doing the same thing.

Capitalism, private property rights, right?

h2O With the oceans rising,dams overflowing. Best solution is to turn the water into hydrogen power THNKYOU

“According to my buddy, Google, about 50g of carbon dioxide are released during solar panel manufacturing unless non-carbon sources are used such as hydroelectric power, nuclear power, or or even other solar panels. This is about the mass of ten nickels Obviously this would vary”

That’s a reductionist way of measuring the amount of petroleum involved.

I recommend reading “How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going” by Vaclav Smil. But in a nutshell synthetic polymers are derived from petroleum oil. At the present, no form of energy at a useful scale can function without petroleum. Maybe scientists will be able to work around this problem and maybe they won’t. Nobody knows the future.

People, prices are going up even with Solar right…imagine if we didn’t have solar and instead any other form of power generation that are three times more expensive to operate and produce KWs!!!

While I will not argue that FPL is greedy and not an advocate for the common citizen, some of the comments are uneducated and only personal opinion. I am of the opinion that we would be silly to not look for alternatives to fossil fuels. THe average lifespan of a solar panel is 25-30 years, not 4 as one commenter stated. Yes, a tornado would take them out as hurricanes and tornados take out all conventional lines and we pay to get them fixed. While China has coal plants they are also the largest producer of solar power in the world, 10 X what the US currently makes. I guess what I am trying to say is if you are going to comment and say things as if they are fact, then check the facts first.

THANK THE LORD JESUS THAT I HAVE EREC AND FPL !!!!!!!

you will get an email from the crooks – I just got one and it said immediately IN OUR EXPECTED rate increase due to GAS–so much for the crooked county voting on it – as suspected- it is a done deal – we get screwed again !!! at the end of it is a place to rate them–well I SURE did

I bet this new solar farm has made billions and billions of megawatts of power on this heavy overcast day. They say it will be enough to power 15,000 homes, does that include stores and schools and other things that use power like streetlights, I bet not, solar and wind are the two most inefficient ways to generate power there is, and will be until men learn to control the weather, which will be never. We all know how much power this solar farm will generate at night.

Deforestation in the name of saving the planet. This is logic?

How much of the environment did we lose while FP&L tries to save the ecology?

This is your shovel ready jobs 2023 Smokescreen once again over let us know where this is on production of power in three to five years.Bill Withers sang it long ago.”Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone”.A.W.Thompson

REGARDING: “I keep seeing these claims about how many homes can be powered by solar farms, but no real proof.”

Take the current power demand for all homes. Divide by the number of homes. That gives you the average power demand per home.

Take the power output. Divide by power per home. That gives you the number of homes that power supply can power if they were right at the source.

To account for line losses, you would get a better idea by dividing total power output by homes supplied but that would still be off a bit since the distance from supply to demand would be different and, of course, users include other than just homes. Close enough to get a reasonable idea, though.

AND “Solar panels dont last long and will need replacement in 4 or 5 years”

And yet they are not replaced nor do they fail after 4 or 5 years.Some solar panels can last longer than 30 years, but most panels can be expected to perform at optimum levels up to 25 years. After that, the output is decreased but they don’t just drop to zero the next day.

AND “solar panels wouldn’t exist without petroleum.”

According to my buddy, Google, about 50g of carbon dioxide are released during solar panel manufacturing unless non-carbon sources are used such as hydroelectric power, nuclear power, or or even other solar panels. This is about the mass of ten nickels Obviously this would vary

Assuming the cleanest fossil fuel, natural gas, is used: The CO2 generated by burning natural gas is 0.185 kg / kWh or 185 grams, so one one kilowatt solar panel would provide enough energy to manufacture more than three solar panels per hour.

this is the worse company with ZERO customer service and GREED abounds!!! I wish I could have the availability of another company – the law was Bell and AT&T but allow this !!! You better not turn on your AC or Heat or you will be charged hundreds!!! mine is off and will stay that way as long as possible

Does this means that our power bills are going to go down? The Sun is given to us free or, are you going to bill God?

Sacrificing that much land combined with the energy used to construct the panels and their future disposal or recycling is a costly solution both economically and environmentally. I’m not saying it is or isn’t a step in the right direction. What I am saying is that we shouldn’t simply assume solar is a sustainable solution or even that it’s preferable to current alternatives. It’s also worth recognizing that solar panels wouldn’t exist without petroleum.

STOP BUILDING SOLAR FARMS AND START LOWERING OUR RATES!!!

Wouldn’t it be great if we used the acres to grow food for the hungry in our area and use the coal and natural gas under our feet to produce electricity. I guess that’s just old fashioned thinking.

1500 acres of land could grow a significant amount of food.

One tornado and just like that poof scattered plastic every where. Lights out. Then the public, you and I will be asked to pay for the clean up. Does FPL have insurance? What is the cost of maintenance? What is the life of the system? How much of our tax money was put into the system? I prefer drill baby drill.

I’m hopeful FPL will begin demonstrating how this will lower our energy cost. I have faith it will, but it’s easy to lose faith when the bill keeps going up.

I keep seeing these claims about how many homes can be powered by solar farms, but no real proof. FPL should power their corporate offices all over the state with nothing but solar, if it’s true.

To those complaining of a rate increase.

You do realize that everything cost more to build and manufacture. Blame the dems as they are pushing all this “fake green” energy. Fake as in the cost to make the parts, build the grid and then upkeep will cost more fuel and money than if they would have just used that at a regular power plant. Yes I know we gonna run out of oil ONE DAY, but we have a 100 years or so of reserve and should be focused on building lasting power plants. Those ran by fuels that last a very long time. Damns and nuclear are some of the best but we dismantling them to build solar farms. Solar panels dont last long and will need replacement in 4 or 5 years. There are 1000’s of coal plants being built in china and they dont care about environment. We buy the solar panels from china. See how this is all connected? We should not depend on china for power needs when we have the ability to fend for ourselves.

Land owners selling their land (soul) to the boogie-man

So acers of forest land is cut clean driving out almost all wildlife. and the panels will rarely produce better than 50% of the capacity.

WooHoo! More wasted money and higher rates. Perfect!

Panels work best where there are no clouds MOST of the time like in the western states. Not in the eastern and southeastern states where cloud free days are found occasionally.

So…, how much will our rates go up now? Btw, for those that don’t know, solar power is not free and it’s not “green”. The cost of the solar panels and maintenance will never be recovered except thru rate increases. But it makes for good public relations for the “saving the planet” crowd. And, all those who have wasted tens of thousands of dollars installing solar panels on their home don’t have to feel so alone. And the FP&L propaganda arm can toot their own horn “Yaay everybody, look at us! We’re saving the planet for your children. Now pay me! “

Let’s celebrate with a rate increase. Go fpl.

Email Address (will not be published) (required)

Website (enter your own site, if any; not northescambia.com)

Have a comment on this story?

We welcome your comments on this story, but there are some rules to follow::

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments. If someone says something bad about you, don't respond. That's childish.

(3) No Libel. That's saying something is not true about someone. Don't do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions. Period.

(5) NorthEscambia.com reserves the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or we think to be inappropriate. We are not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 300 words or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over 30 days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business or political group, or link to another commercial web site or political site of any kind.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under MORE TOP STORIES 

Copyright © 2007-2019 NorthEscambia.com · P.O. Box 1207 · Century, FL 32535 · All Rights Reserved.