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Florida Power & Light said that it will begin delivering electricity later this month from the 25MW DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia. When activated, the solar power plant will become the largest photovoltaic installation in North America, overtaking Nevada's Nellis AFB facility.

The DeSoto center, which was built in less than a year and ahead of schedule, uses more than 90,000 SunPower high-efficiency crystalline-silicon PV panels mounted on tracking systems. It will be capable of generating approximately 42,000MWhr of electricity annually.

The DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center is one of three new commercial-scale solar power plants that FPL is building in Florida. A 75MW solar thermal plant is being built in Martin County, while a 10MW PV-based facility is under construction at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The combined total of the three plants--110MW--will make Florida the second-largest solar power-producing state in the U.S., according to the utility.

Over the past year, more than 400 jobs were created during construction of the project. DeSoto county will also receive annual tax revenues that will amount to $2 million for schools and other local services by the end of next year.