Former FAMU President Fred J. Gainous, who serves as the executive director of the Brooksville Agricultural and Environmental Research Station, will present a “Brooksville Solar Farm Proposal” as an informational item during the upcoming FAMU Board of Trustees meeting on January 24th.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently partnered with other Boston-based groups to construct a 650-acre solar farm in North Carolina. A March 23, 2017 newsletter by MIT said that “it is the largest renewable energy project ever built in the U.S. through an alliance among different organizations, and has already spawned interest among other institutions and organizations seeking to emulate the successful aggregation process.”
FAMU could build an even bigger solar farm at Brooksville, which has 3,800 acres.
The Brooksville site was formerly used as a USDA research station that focused on beef cattle. That research station closed in 2012. The FAMU College of Agriculture and Food Sciences, led by Dean Robert Taylor was the driving force behind FAMU’s push to acquire the land. Back in 2014, FAMU Interim President Larry Robinson and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack signed a historic agreement to transfer the 3,800 acres of federal land to FAMU.
A FAMU solar farm could also create lots of jobs in South Florida.
According to the MIT newsletter: “After many months of study, consultation, and negotiation, the solar farm of 255,000 panels — called Summit Farms — was built, tested, and delivered less than six months after the agreement was signed, creating more than 1,000 jobs at the site during the process.”