A Samsula sod farm may soon be growing a new product – solar energy – via a Florida Power & Light facility that could start construction early next year.

The facility would be one of more than a dozen FPL plans to build over a span of four years as the company works to expand its use of alternative renewable energy. But the proposal leaves at least one property owner in the rural neighborhood of farms and ranchettes nervous about what to expect.

The Pioneer Trail Solar Energy Center would be built on the south side of State 44, about a mile east of Pioneer Trail, on the former Kirkland Sod Farm. It would include about 300,000 photovoltaic panels, producing up to 74.5 megawatts of electricity a year.

FPL built three similar facilities last year across Florida, plans four in 2017 and four in 2018 — enough to power a total of 120,000 homes. The company also installed a commercial set of panels at Daytona International Speedway. By 2023, the company plans for about 4 percent of its energy portfolio to be solar, said spokeswoman Alys Daly, while coal and oil would drop to 1 percent of the mix.

The Samsula sod farm perfectly fit the company's bill for solar sites, said Geoff West, FPL project manager. They look for sites for sale that have already been cleared, are flat and close to a transmission line.

FPL conducted two open houses to discuss the project and invited its neighbors to attend.

Aaron Buell, one of the closest neighbors to the proposed facility, attended one of the open houses but wasn’t convinced the solar facility would be good for his family or his property values. Buell also attended the Volusia County Council meeting last week to voice his concerns about the company's request to rezone the 1,192 acres it owns at the sod farm. The company, according to county records, bought the land for about $6 million last year from the Kirkland family, which has farmed the land for several generations.

For Buell, a field of racks with solar panels will be a huge change from the fields of sod and cows that he now sees from his property off Ranchette Road.

“I drive a hybrid; I’m not anti-solar at all,” said Buell. “It was just a big surprise to me, and I’m on the fence about it.”

His “main concern” is what will happen to his property values with an electric-generating facility next door rather than the sod farm. If someone is looking for a piece of property and wants to live in a neighborhood with farms and horses, he fears they’ll look at his property and see solar panels instead. “Obviously, it’s a lot more pleasing to look at now than it’s going to be."

The company figures the closest solar panels will be somewhere between 150 to 200 feet from his property line and roughly 700 feet from his home.

Buell also questions whether the facility will use trackers that make a clicking noise as they move the panels to take advantage of sunlight and wondered about potential health concerns from electromagnetic radiation.

A study by the North Carolina-based Southern Environmental Law Center found that solar farms like the Samsula facility produce a clean, renewable energy, with “few, if any” health impacts, said Laura Bowen, a staff attorney.

The panels produce “very low levels of electromagnetic field exposure or radiation,” she said, “to the extent that it’s below most household appliances.”

FPL doesn't intend to use the trackers on this site, said Daly, but hasn't entirely ruled them out. The company isn't using trackers on the facilities it's building this year, she said.

The Samsula facility would be one of several planned for completion in 2019, West said. It would be erected on roughly 450 acres of the available land. Solar panels would be stacked by two on poles planted in the existing sod fields, reaching about 7 feet high.

The non-reflective panels will capture the sun's energy, sending a direct current to a series of 30 to 35 inverters that will send an alternating current to a substation near State Road 44, West said. That substation will send the electricity on to a set of FPL transmission lines about a half mile away. The panels would produce enough energy to power about 15,000 homes, Daly said, creating enough emissions savings to equal taking about 12,000 cars off the road.

Maintenance pathways between groups of panels would be dug out a few inches, then lined with fabric and crushed stone, West said. And there’s no lights, he said, so the facility won’t be visible at night.

Members of the Kirkland family will continue to lease back part of the property for growing sod, operating as 4C Sod, and continue to live on adjacent property.

The County Council approved the rezoning on a 5-1 vote, with Councilwoman Joyce Cusack voting no because she wanted further assurances that FPL would be able to build and operate the solar facility without infringing on the property rights of its neighbors. A second public hearing takes place at the June 1 council meeting.

Buell said he's reserving judgement. “If it’s not an eyesore, and they do what they say they’re going to do, then it may not be that bad of a deal."

The law center provided guidance for utility companies on how to be good neighbors, including using existing roads and planting native species, something FPL indicated it plans to do in Samsula.

Daly said they plan to work with local Audubon chapters to install “pollinator gardens,” with native plant species that attract bees, butterflies and other insects and may plant additional trees and shrubs as buffers where necessary.

It has been a tumultuous couple of years for the solar industry in Florida as different factions worked to get amendments on the ballot and approved by voters to regulate the business or provide tax breaks. One utility-backed amendment was defeated last year, while voters approved an amendment proposed by legislators to provide tax breaks, which Daly said the utilities also supported.

Solar energy advocates are happy to see FPL adding solar.

“We wholeheartedly support Florida Power and Light doing large amounts of utility-scale solar, to get to the scale we need to get to” to reach critical mass as part of the state’s energy mix, said Susan Glickman, Florida director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

“We do want to make sure that Florida consumers are getting the best prices,” Glickman said, while also making sure utility companies aren’t taking advantage of their “enormous influence” to create barriers to the deployment of rooftop solar for single-family homes and businesses.