District 1 Getting Solar-Powered!

A massive solar array capable of producing enough energy to power 7400 homes locally is coming on line this month in District 1

One of the largest solar arrays in the Southeast United States will be coming on line this month.

It is located right here in District 1--at the site of the former runways at OLF Saufley Field off of Blue Angel Parkway in central Escambia County.

According to the U.S. Navy, this field will begin generating electricity this month, and the ceremony to "turn-on" the array will occur on the 22nd of this month.

Other interesting facts about this array:

 -Department of Defense - Secretary of the Navy directed development of a plans to obtain 1GW of renewable energy.

-NAS Pensacola partnered with Gulf Power through the Renewable Energy Program Office (REPO) to construct a 65 MW solar photovoltaic facility located on NOLF Saufley Field.

-The Saufley Field/Gulf Power facility will begin power generation in late July 2017 and will be capable of producing enough energy for 7,400 homes in Escambia County.

OLFX/OLF8 Special Meeting Monday

A special meeting has been scheduled for Monday, June 19th at 3:30 PM in the Board's Chambers.  The subject of the meeting is the continuing quest to bring our OLF8/OLFX land-swap with the Navy in for a landing.

The project has been in the works for decades, was the #1 Ranked Economic Development project from the Restore Act Committee, and has the potential to create as many as 4000 good paying jobs for Escambia County.

The deal almost died, however, because of cost escalations that continued to pile up for a variety of reasons.  Last month Congressman Matt Gaetz intervened to bring the parties back together with the goal of having the Navy give some concessions on the requirements to  lower costs.  That effort was successful and this meeting Monday will be a follow-on to see what else can be done to keep this effort moving forward and reduce costs further.

The public is invited and encouraged to attend this meeting.

For additional information on the overall project, check out this post and this one.

Good News on the OLF8 OLFX Land Swap

The Board of County Commissioners received a very important letter this week from Rear Admiral Bette Bolivar, Commander, Navy Region Southeast regarding the OLF 8  / OLF X   land swap deal. 

This project has been in the works for many, many years and is a very important economic development project for District 1 and Escambia County.  It was the #1 rated economic development project from the restore act committee.

Over the last several years, however,  the project's costs have continuously escalated and the requirements for the OLF X landing field in Santa Rosa County have continued to grow.  Because this project's costs have continued to escalate, Escambia County had faced the very realistic possibility of having to walk away from this deal.

Last month, the County threw out a "Hail Mary" pass and contacted Matt Gaetz who committed to help facilitate the completion of this land swap deal.  Additionally, Administrator Jack Brown wrote to the Navy on behalf of the commissioners in an attempt to keep the project on track.  In his letter, he asked for some concessions from the Navy to keep the costs from escalating further.

This week we have received the Navy's response, from Admiral Bolivar.  From the letter:

"After thorough review, evaluation, and consideration of the requirements for Navy helicopter outlying landing fields in the Naval Air Station (NAS) Whiting Field Training Complex, and with the concurrence of CNATRA's and higher headquarters, we have determined several items may be deferred from the initial stated requirements.."

Although reluctant to put a price on the concessions, Administrator Jack Brown stated that "an initial look at what has been offered points to potentially $1-2 Million dollars the County will save on improvements to OLF X in Santa Rosa County."

Because this is such a huge project for District 1 and all of Escambia County--and as the District 1 representative on the BCC-I applaud the efforts of the County Staff and the Navy to help reduce the costs associated with this project.  Hopefully this concession will allow us to keep moving forward with this very worthwhile project!