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Insights > Searcy Solar Set to Begin Turning Sunshine into Electricity in December
Searcy Solar Set to Begin Turning Sunshine into Electricity in December
05/12/2021
Construction of the Searcy Solar power generating plant is about 42% complete. When the facility goes online by the end of this year, 100 megawatts of emission-free power will begin flowing from the plant’s more than 350,000 solar panels onto the Entergy Arkansas electric grid.
Searcy Solar will have a feature new to the Entergy Arkansas solar energy fleet: an array of lithium-ion batteries on site to store up to 30 megawatt hours of electricity to be used when the sun isn’t shining.
Searcy Solar, located on 800 acres, east of Eastline Road in Searcy, will be the third project generating solar energy for Entergy Arkansas’ customers, bringing the total of solar power to 281 megawatts generated from panels covering more than 2,000 acres – enough to power about 45,000 homes.
The Stuttgart Solar Energy Center has been producing 81 megawatts of solar energy since 2018, and the Chicot Solar Energy Center has been providing 100 megawatts of power since it came online in the fall of 2020.
The Searcy Solar facility has brought 200 temporary construction jobs to the area, as well as two or three permanent jobs, along with periodic maintenance workers. It also will provide about $700,000 in annual property taxes, as well as environmental benefits through emissions-free energy.
Unlike the other two solar projects, which are owned and operated by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC with energy produced sold to Entergy Arkansas for 20 years, Searcy will be built by NextEra Energy Resources and owned by Entergy Arkansas.
