Gainesville, Fla., City Commission Approves Solar Plus Storage Project

July 21, 2020

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 21, 2020

The Gainesville, Fla., City Commission on July 16 unanimously approved a project that will bring 50 megwatts of solar power to the public power community by 2022. The project also includes 12-MW of energy storage.

Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) previously reached an agreement to add 50 MW of solar power generation to its renewable energy portfolio through a power purchase agreement with Origis Energy.

The agreement moves the city closer to a goal of 100 percent renewable by 2045.

GRU’s current renewable resources include the Deerhaven Renewable Generating Station (103 MW), landfill gas-fueled power (3.6 MW), and Solar Feed-in-Tariff (18.5 MW).

GRU also has approximately nine MW of customer-owned and net-metered solar connected to its distribution system.

The solar facility will be located approximately two miles south of GRU’s Parker Road substation.