9 Investigates: Ocoee poised to become one of 1st cities to open solar farm

OCOEE, Fla. — 9 Investigates learned Ocoee is poised to become one of the first local cities to open its own solar farm.

City leaders said the goal is to help offset energy costs in the Utilities Department and to reduce the city’s “carbon footprint.”

The cost to create two solar farms, each about 200 feet long and 16 feet wide, is an estimated $165,000.

“We’re spending about $531,000 a year just in the Utilities Department on the treatment process, using a lot of power. So we wanted to do a few things to help offset it,” Utilities Director Charles Smith said.

Smith said that eventually the plan could be expanded to 20 times the size of the first farm.

“It’d be a major project, and it would probably be over a five-year period,” Smith said.

9 Investigates found out that the first farms will only generate about 1 percent of the power the city’s utilities department uses, meaning the panels will take a dozen years to pay for themselves.

“It's really not a lot, but it's a start, a beginning. As we build more arrays, we'll be able to see a much higher increase in savings,” Smith said.

Despite being called the Sunshine State, Florida has been relatively slow to embrace solar power.
The Solar Energy Industries Association ranks Florida as 14th in the nation for solar capacity installed.

A map generated by the SEIA shows only about 20 major solar farms in the state as of May 2016.
Ocoee's project won't create nearly enough power to join that list, but Smith still believes it will have an impact.

“This is just one more step for us,” Smith said.

Ocoee leaders are expected to approve an agreement with a contractor in early January, and they hope to break ground in March.

Cox Media Group