2 Georgia counties on list for 400 MW solar project

A fledgling solar company based in Florida is eyeing two Georgia counties for an ambitious$1.4 billion, 400-megawatt solar project.

Melbourne-based National Solar Power is considering Sumter and Tatnall counties for the project, five times larger than the world's largest solar array, which is in Ontario. The company also is looking at four counties in Florida and one in North Carolina, according to a news release posted on its Web site.

The company has hired Hensel Phelps Construction to build the solar project and expects to choose a site in about a month, a spokesman said. The project's financing source has not been released.

National Solar Power’s main office is housed at the Technological Research and Development Authority, a business incubator in Melbourne. Separate from this project, the company has agreed to sell 3,000 megawatts of solar power to a utility in the southeast. A spokesman would not name the utility.