Clean, renewable energy is said to be the way of the future and, parts of Northwest Florida are already on board.
This year marks a milestone for Gulf Power’s solar fields being fully operational.
There are nearly 370,000 thousand of these solar panels right here at this field and total of 1.5 million in Northwest Florida.
“We are out here at Eglin. This actually produces about 30 mega watts of power which can power about almost about 4500 home annually,” explained Rick DelaHaya, Gulf Power, Media Relations.
The solar field built on the Eglin Air Force Base Reserve, is just one of the three solar fields run by Gulf Power. When they first “flipped the switch” in 2017, the goal was for all three fields to produce 120 mega watts to power 18,000 homes annually.
“…and they have reached that capacity all three fields so we are really excited that we have..are able to deliver on what our expectations were,” shared Kimberly Blair, Gulf Power, Media Relations.
Here’s how they works: As the sun shines, the rays hit these solar panels. The solar panels collect the sun’s energy then, send it to the inverter and the inverter, converts the D.C. or direct current energy to A.C. or alternating currents. Next, it gets sent to the sub station. At the sub station, the energy is ramped it and put onto the grid in order to the homes.
“These are just like what you see on the top of a calculator. That powers your calculators, just on a bigger scale,” described Jeff Rogers, Gulf Power, Spokesman.
The humming noise that comes from the inverter and solar panels, is essentially a good thing and means, the solar energy is being harnessed.
“That’s magic. Yeah, that’s the sun that’s converting the suns energy into something that we use,” said Rogers.
When you put all three combined solar fields together, it’s one of the largest solar fields in Florida.
“To put it bluntly, you know, the sky is wide open for more panels and more renewable resources. And, this is just the beginning,” shared DelaHaya.
Gulf power says this is the way of the future. They plan to continue their exploration for natural resources to provide clean safe