A new utility-scale solar farm was unveiled Monday in Washington Parish and is expected to go online in the next few days to generate enough electricity to power roughly 11,500 homes.
D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, one of the nation’s largest independent solar power producers, unveiled its 50-megawatt solar facility on about 447 acres of private land just outside Franklinton. The Sunlight Road Solar facility boasts new technology in the form of all-terrain, sun-tracking sensors developed by the Oakland, Calif.-based Nevados.
Nevados’ TRACE solar trackers automatically tilt the rows of solar modules toward the sun with flexible joints that allow them to be mounted on uneven terrain. This minimized the amount of land grading needed in Washington Parish, allowing it to retain much of its lush green pastures. It also prevents runoff and protects the area’s watershed, according to a Nevados news advisory.
The all-terrain trackers also allow the modules to go into a “stow” position that tilts the modules to an angle that increases their resilience to extreme weather such as hurricanes and hail storms.
The solar farm plans to sell its electricity to Entergy Louisiana.
Correction: The Sunlight Road Solar project was unveiled to the public Monday and is expected to go online this week. An earlier version of this article mistakenly reported it had gone online the same day the developers celebrated its opening with a ribbon-cutting event. Also, the amount of acreage has been updated from a previous figure that appeared on the project website.
