Polk County’s vast tracts of vacant land, particularly in some of the areas mined and reclaimed by the phosphate industry, are attracting interest of investors interested in developing new solar farms.
The latest potential entrant is San Francisco-based Ecoplexus, which is considering a 463-acre site near the intersection of State Road 37 and Doc Durrance Road near the Bradley community south of Mulberry.
This not far from where a scaled-back solar farm proposed by Tampa Electric was approved in the Chicora area last year.
Other projects have been proposed elsewhere in the Bone Valley area.
Meanwhile, Tampa Electric is actively constructing some solar farms in the Bartow area and another solar farm is under construction in the Fort Lonesome area just outside of Polk County.
This is making Polk County one of the centers for sustainable green energy generation in Florida.