FPL buys 400-acre site in western Palm Beach County for $10M

Florida Power & Light just paid $10 million for a 400-acre site in the western edge of Palm Beach County that it is proposing to use for a solar farm.

FPL purchased the property from Minto Communities, which is developing Westlake, a 4,500-home master-planned community. Westlake could have the county’s first large-scale utility solar plant, according to a press release.

The solar plant, if approved, can produce 74.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 15,000 homes, the press release said. John Carter, a Minto vice president said in the release that Westlake will be consuming as much power as FPL will be producing from the solar energy center, creating a net zero carbon offset.

Earlier this month, FPL purchased another 1,300 acres in western Palm Beach County known as The Acreage/Loxahatchee Groves for $19.3 million.

Across Florida, FPL has installed more than 3.5 million new solar panels in less than two years. By 2023, FPL expects to increase this to more than 10 million solar panels. FPL is the third-largest electric utility in the United States, serving about 5 million customer accounts or more than 10 million people across nearly half of the state of Florida, according to its website.

Westlake is off of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road between Southern Boulevard and Northlake Boulevard. Several residents have already closed on homes and started moving into the community’s first neighborhood, the Hammocks, according to the release.