Switch flipped on solar facilities

Officials marked the completion of the three largest combined solar facilities on Defense Department property in a ceremonial flipping of the switch Tuesday. Executives of Gulf Power, Coronal Energy, the Air Force and Navy were on hand at Naval Air Station Pensacola’s Naval Outlying Landing Field Saufley for the event. Ground was broken in November 2016 for the project that spans 940 acres across three Navy and Air Force sites in Northwest Florida. Saufley’s solar array site is a 50 megawatt solar-generating facility. The other two sites are at Naval Air Station Whiting Field’s Outlying Landing Field Holley (40 megawatts) and Eglin Air Force Base (30 megawatts). Combined the three sites have about 1.5 million solar panels capable of generating up to 120 megawatts of electricity. The projects became operational earlier this summer. (Source: GCAC, 08/21/17)