City Park Solar Serenade: Sun-Powered Streetlamps Lighten Florida Community

The Florida city with perhaps one of the deepest solar installations per capita in the U.S. has extended its sunny disposition to park street lamps.

Solar-powered streetlight provider Streetleaf is illuminating six public parks at Babcock Ranch in southwest Florida. The array includes a total of 110 Streetleaf solar-powered street lights running along The PKWY of Babcock Ranch, including Bluebird (pictured), Hillcrest, Lagoon, Explorers, Bark and Palmetto parks.

The partnership between Babcock Ranch and Streetleaf will involve four phases. The first phase was started and completed in the fall of 2024, and the other three are planned by the end of 2025.

“Babcock Ranch is known for its forward-thinking sustainability and resilience, and we are honored to be their street lighting provider,” stated Liam Ryan, CEO of Streetleaf. “This highlights the need to meet the demand for sustainable living solutions, and storm resilient infrastructure especially in Florida.”

Streetleaf provides the installation, lighting, routine maintenance, and 24/7 monitoring.  While maintaining wind ratings, each light has the ability to attach security cameras for safety and banners for social purposes to each of the poles.

Babcock Ranch is a planned community and also known for its utility-scale solar partnership with Florida Power & Light (FPL). The city is near two 74.5-MW solar farms which include some 342,000 photovoltaic panels across 440 acres.

Altogether, FPL owns and operates more than 600,000 solar panels in Charlotte County.

When completed in 2018, Babcock Ranch was touted as "America's first solar town."

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