US utility Duke Energy is planning the development of four PV plants in Florida as part of a wider US$1 billion solar investment in the state.
With a combined capacity of 300MW, each of the four 74.9MW facilities will feature single-axis trackers and between 216,000 and 220,000 bifacial modules. Construction is expected to begin in early 2022 and will take between nine months and one year to complete.
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The projects were announced by Duke subsidiary Duke Energy Florida, which is also planning to support the construction of a further six solar projects through its US$1 billion investment. All ten plants are expected to be built by the end of 2024.
Duke Energy last year revealed plans to ramp up spending on clean energy to help it achieve its goal of 16GW of installed renewables capacity by 2025 and move towards net zero by 2050. In its 2020 Climate Report, the utility said that reaching the 16GW target would see renewables’ share of its total output increase from 12% to 20%.
Duke currently has more than 900MW of solar generation under construction or in operation in Florida, a state that was behind only California and Texas in terms of US solar deployment last year.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, Florida has more than 7GW of installed solar, a figure that will be boosted by utility Tampa Electric’s plans to add more than 600MW of PV in the state by the end of 2023.
