A Ponte Vedra Beach solar energy firm plans to build a $1.7 million project in Gainesville and then sell the electricity produced to the utility, making it the company’s first significant Florida project.

Solar Energy Initiatives Inc.’s rooftop solar panels will have the capacity to produce 300 kilowatts to 400 kilowatts, said Gregory Bakeman, the company’s president. His company will sell the electricity to Gainesville Regional Utilities for 33 cents per kilowatt.

The utility’s program allows residents and small businesses to sell electricity. The feed-in tariff program, which was the first of its kind in the country, will add 4 megawatts worth of installation annually for the next 20 years. One megawatt-hour can power 250 homes.

The feed-in tariff program provides opportunities not only for local contractors, but also for manufacturers that have been hit by credit tightening. The 5 percent return on financing through the 20-year contract is a bright spot for investors,

“If more utilities did what Gainesville is doing, we’d be seeing a lot more activity,” Bakeman said. “Solar rebates are oversubscribed and the selling price for power makes economics challenging.”

JEA is waiting to see how Gainesville’s program works before deciding to pursue one here. The public-owned utility is revising its solar program so that customers who produce more electricity than they use to power their business or home will be reimbursed.

The Gainesville project, which will be finished in early 2010, is the latest of a string of contracts for Solar Energy Initiatives. It won a contract to build a $750 million, 300-megawatt solar park in West Texas and an $80 million project to build a 120-acre solar park in California.

Read More: Solar Energy to build Gainesville project - Jacksonville Business Journal:.