According to our our friends at Northwest Florida Daily News, an 867-acre solar power facility proposed for northern Walton County, Florida recently got unanimous approval from Walton County’s Planning Commission and is headed to the Walton County Commission next month for final action.
The Planning Commission’s vote to find that plans for Gulf Power’s proposed Chautauqua Solar Energy Center met the requirements of the county’s comprehensive plan and land development code came after presentations from a Gulf Power engineer, the counsel working with the company and other technical experts.
Those presentations were followed by comments from a number of residents expressing an array of concerns about the potential impact of the project on their neighborhood. Also offering comment were representatives of CareerSource Okaloosa-Walton and Emerald Coast Technical College, who touted the job training possibilities of the project, among other expressions of support.
The solar energy center is proposed for agricultural property along Harrison Road and Brown Road about 3 miles east of U.S. Highway 331 North. It is part of a joint effort by Gulf Power and Florida Power and Light to install 30 million solar panels across Florida by 2030.
A major reason for the selection of the site is that it is crossed by an existing Gulf Power transmission line, into which power from the solar facility would be fed.
If approved by county commissioners next month, the Chautauqua Solar Energy Center would become the first solar power generation facility in Walton County. As planned, it would generate 74.5 megawatts of electricity. A single megawatt of electricity is enough to power the average family home for 1.2 months.
