November 7, 2025 – St. Petersburg-based Duke Energy Florida has announced plans to create four new solar sites that will add nearly 300 megawatts to the electric grid by early 2027. Duke will build the solar energy plants, which will “save customers an estimated $1 billion over their service lifetimes,” in Columbia, Osceola and Sumter Counties. At peak output, each solar site will save roughly 1.1 million cubic feet of natural gas, 12,000 barrels of oil and 9,000 tons of coal annually.
