Duke Energy Florida has opened a new solar facility that can power for about 15,000 homes in the Big Bend area at peak output.
The company announced the completion of the Bailey Mill Solar Center near Monticello in Jefferson County. The site’s roughly 163,000 solar panels give it a generating capacity of 74.9 megawatts.
Duke officials said the facility is expected to save customers about $250 million in fuel costs over its lifetime.
“The launch of Bailey Mill is another step toward lowering long-term energy costs for our customers,” said Melissa Seixas, Duke Energy Florida President.
“Every solar site we bring online reduces the amount of fuel we need to purchase, and those savings go directly to our customers’ bills. We’re grateful to the Jefferson County community for partnering with us to make this project possible.”
At peak performance, the facility is expected to displace 1.2 million cubic feet of natural gas each year, Duke officials said. That is the equivalent of about 15,000 barrels of oil or 12,000 tons of coal.
Bailey Mill is one of four solar sites Duke built under a 2024 settlement approved by state regulators, along with facilities in Madison, Sumter and Hernando counties. Together, the four sites are expected to save Duke’s Florida customers about $843 million over their service lives.
Duke owns and operates more than 25 solar sites in Florida, with a combined capacity of about 1,850 megawatts. Bailey Mill is one of five completed since 2025, and the company plans to add 11 more by the end of 1028.
Duke has about 2 million residential, commercial and industrial customers in Florida, most of them along the Gulf Coast or in Central Florida. The Bailey Mill site is one of the company’s few operations in the Big Bend area.
Nationally, Duke serves about 8.7 million customers, most of them in the Southeast, with others in Ohio and Indiana.
Drew Dixon is a journalist of 40 years who has reported in print and broadcast throughout Florida, starting in Ohio in the 1980s. He is also an adjunct professor of philosophy and ethics at three colleges, Jacksonville University, University of North Florida and Florida State College at Jacksonville. You can reach him at [email protected].
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