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JEA's plan for solar farms withers after $34 million land buy

JEA gets electricity from several smaller solar farms such as one that opened in 2010 on the Westside.
Rick Wilson
/
via Florida Times-Union
JEA gets electricity from several smaller solar farms such as one that opened in 2010 on the Westside.

JEA shelled out $34 million buying land in 2017 and 2018 for construction of solar farms that would boost it from below-average for solar power into a rising star among Southeast utilities.

The summer sun beats down brightly as ever on those wooded tracts. But after spending millions of dollars for land acquisition, the big parcels JEA set aside for five new solar farms have more potential for harvesting timber than the sun's rays.

Construction of what JEA once called the "Jacksonville 5" never broke ground. JEA recently parted ways with EDF Renewables, the private company that was supposed to build the solar facilities and sell the power from them to JEA by the end of this year.

Read the rest of this story at WJCT News partner The Florida Times-Union.