FALMOUTH, Fla. — While it was a day to celebrate the present with a glimpse into the future, officials from Duke Energy and Suwannee County couldn’t help but look to the past either Thursday.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony to commemorate the opening of Duke Energy’s Suwannee Solar Facility, which is located just east of the old Suwannee Power Plant, that connection had an impact on those in attendance.

“This site is pretty special to Duke Energy,” Duke Energy Florida President Harry Sideris said. “We’ve been here for over 60 years.

“It really honors the past and the facilities that we’ve had here but it is really the future and where we’re going.

“I can’t imagine us not being here, so when this opportunity came up, we had to do it to continue that tradition of being part of the community.”

Sideris was far from alone in reminiscing at the launch party for the 8.8 megawatt power plant, the company’s largest solar plant in the state, which sits on 70 acres and contains 44,000 panels.

Ricky Gamble, the chairman of the Suwannee County Board of County Commissioners, said he was excited when Duke Energy approached the board about the facility.

But his excitement went beyond the possibility of a political win.

“I was excited as a commissioner to be able to partner with them, not only to keep a presence here in Suwannee County but you’re looking at green, clean energy. That’s a political home run. But also on a personal level,” he said, explaining that his grandfather worked at the Suwannee plant, which was also the company’s largest power plant at the time it opened, and he was a frequent visitor to the property growing up.

“I was raised up going to this plant almost every weekend going fishing on the river. My sandbox at the house was from five-gallon buckets of dirt that we would go past the clubhouse and fill up with the prettiest river sand that you’ve ever seen.

“As a representative of Suwannee County, we appreciate and we’re grateful for the past, we’re thankful for today and we look forward to more opportunities to continue to partner with Duke Energy over the years.”

With that obvious connection to the past, Duke Energy also had Gary Glee, a retired worker that spent nearly 40 years working at the old plant, present at the ceremony as well.

“This plant has been a beacon in this community and this county for over 60 years,” Glee said. “Suwannee has always been reliable and dependable … and we took pride in that.”

That reliability and dependability will continue with the solar plant, which is the company’s fifth in the state.

It also leads into a huge push from Duke Energy into the solar business as the company has plans for an additional 700 MW of solar energy within the next four years.

The company won’t have to look far for its next solar facility as it plans to begin construction on a 550-acre, 74.9-megawatt plant in Hamilton County near Jasper that will feature approximately 300,000 panels.

“It will be large,” Sideris added.