- March 28, 2024
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Lockheed Martin will provide a little shade to the more than 500 employee cars parking at its Oldsmar campus -- using Florida's largest private, non-utility solar project.
The Maryland-based global security and aerospace company has broken ground on what it calls a solar carport. It will provide 151,400 square feet of protected parking by covering it with 7,260 solar modules to generate 2.25 megawatts of power. The sun power would cut utility costs by 60%, executives say, creating an annual savings of $300,000.
Advanced Green Technologies is building the solar plant using photovoltaic panels from Hanwha Solar One Co. Ltd. It's designed to produce 3 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year for the next 25 years. That's enough power each day to power 32,000 laptop computers for 11 hours.
Mike Sarpu, vice president of operations at Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training, says the Oldsmar project will give the company a triple punch: It will reduce its carbon footprint, make it cheaper to run operations with reduced energy costs and give employees some shaded parking.
Lockheed Martin has two other renewable energy projects underway at other facilities around the country, with the goal of generating an additional 3 megawatts of solar power for those facilities.