Duke Energy Starts Building its First Floating Solar Array in Florida

Duke Energy Florida will begin work on its first floating solar array pilot at the company’s Hines Energy Complex in Bartow, Polk County, Florida.

The array will feature 1,800 floating solar modules on close to 2 acres of water surface in a cooling pond at the complex. The array will generate an output of close to 1 MW.

The trial falls under Duke Energy’s Vision Florida program that pilots new projects such as battery energy storage and microgrids to advance the future of clean energy.

Crews will build and assemble the floating array on land in parts before deploying it on water with the use of anchors. The entire project is slated to take close to five to six months.