Lakeland’s neighborhood of the future, which was to become the city’s first solar microgrid community is dead
Assistant City Attorney Ramona Sirianni told city commissioners Friday morning during an agenda study that BlockEnergy, which was supplying the solar equipment, notified the city in late January that it was seeking to wind down all of its business operations, including its project with the city.
The Myrtlebrook subdivision was slated for development in Lakeland’s northwest quadrant, west of Dr. N.E. Roberts Elementary School on Myrtle Road, west of Green Road. Highland Homes is also ending its plan for building the neighborhood.
BlockEnergy has agreed to return in full to the city the $1.27 million paid to help develop the microgrid.
Sirianni said the full refund will enable Lakeland Electric to pursue similar microgrid opportunities that may arise in the future.