Baptist Health of Little Rock will be reaping power soon from a 13-megawatt solar farm that Seal Solar of North Little Rock is building in Arkansas County.
Baptist, the largest not-for-profit health care organization based in the state with 12,000 employees, is behind the 49-acre project just outside Stuttgart. It will be one of the largest nonutility-scale systems in the state.
Baptist Health, which will own the array and the land, is investing about $13 million after tax credits that it expects to reap. That’s according to Brent Beaulieu, the system’s chief financial officer. Seal Solar installed 22,300 bifacial solar modules, expected to yield about 22.6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.
“This will produce enough to cover half our electricity needs throughout the system,” Beaulieu told Arkansas Business via email.
Baptist’s system includes 12 hospitals, urgent care centers, a senior living community and more than 75 primary and specialty care clinics across the state.
When the project’s solar power goes onto Entergy Arkansas’ grid early next year, its aggregated value will be credited to Baptist Health.
Beaulieu said he is proud of the solar farm, which is in a former rice field. He called the project a step toward generating cleaner, more sustainable power while reducing costs.
“This project reflects our commitment to being a greener organization and builds on our strong record of energy efficiency, demonstrated by our 83% Energy Star Rating at Baptist Health Medical Center-Little Rock.”
John Buckley, Seal Solar’s project manager, said the array should be interconnected in early spring. “We’re looking at about March 13,” Buckley said. “We are proud to be working with the team at Baptist Health to meet their sustainability and cost-saving needs.”
Seal Solar, founded by Josh Davenport and Heather Nelson in 2012, broke ground on the solar farm in September 2024, and at peak construction had about 45 workers onsite, Buckley said. “The exact amount of hours that we’ve worked out there is just shy of 38,000, with absolutely zero incidents or injuries.”
The solar farm’s advanced modules are “designed to harness the sun’s energy from both sides … so they’re close to 21% more efficient than a standard module,” Buckley said. “Currently we’re kind of in the stage where we’re going through everything with a fine-tooth comb and making sure everything’s perfect.”
The modules are guaranteed to produce power for 30 years, Davenport said in a telephone interview.
Seal Solar has been involved in every aspect of the solar farm, from design to permitting to construction. “All the way to the end,” Buckley said. “We’re going to do the operation and maintenance, make sure the site is groomed, and deal with any issues whatsoever. We have people that are on call to take care of anything that needs to be done.”
Davenport noted that Seal has a long history of working with businesses, farms and nonprofits looking to incorporate solar power.
“Energy costs are an expense that every business has to look at, and it’s worth looking at solar to offset that expense, whether it’s behind the meter or off-site.”
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