EDP Renewables North America has announced the launch of its Crooked Lake Solar Park near Blytheville in Mississippi County, Arkansas. The 175-megawatt project is set to generate enough energy to power the equivalent of 30,000 Arkansas homes each year.
Crooked Lake Solar Park is built on land leased by local landowners who recognize the benefits of hosting a solar project and believe in the economic impact it will bring to the city and greater county, complementing the area’s agricultural heritage. The project will directly support Arkansas’ electric grid and is expected to play a significant role in the region’s economic growth.
The development of Crooked Lake will support more than 330 construction jobs and create six permanent jobs dedicated to its ongoing operations and routine maintenance. Over the project’s lifetime, it will disburse an estimated US$106.2 million to local landowners and pay approximately US$12.4 million in taxes to local governments. Additionally, the solar park will save more than 222 million gallons of water each year that would have otherwise been consumed by conventional generation sources for equivalent energy capacity.
“We’re proud to continue our expansion in the South with a focus on serving the clean energy needs of Arkansas,” stated CEO of EDP Renewables North America Sandhya Ganapathy. “By providing sustainable energy to Mississippi County and the surrounding area, we are generating economic growth and grid stability for generations to come in the region.”
EDPR NA has also placed a special focus on STEM education and local community impact. The construction of the project is being utilized to educate K-12 students at Armorel School District and Blytheville School District on the benefits of wind and solar energy through school visits and science-related challenges organized in partnership with KidWind. In addition, the project team, alongside groups like 4H and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, has volunteered and donated to several organizations revitalizing Blytheville and broader Mississippi County, including the Adopt a Block Initiative and Mississippi County Union Mission.
“We’re grateful for EDPR NA working alongside The City of Blytheville’s Quality of Life Division to take an active role in helping to beautify our city and to unite our community together to do something positive. EDPR NA’s sponsorship in the Adopt a Block Initiative provided much-needed logistical support and supplies,” stated Mayor Melisa Logan. “The team through their support helped us highlight heroes that took the courageous step to adopt blocks in our community, which truly made an impact.”
The move into Arkansas marks EDPR NA’s continued growth into new state markets in the South, with recent expansions of its utility-scale operations in North Carolina and Mississippi, and its distributed generation footprint in states spanning Virginia and South Carolina down to Florida and Louisiana.
