On Tuesday, April 12, the solar farm was switched on with representatives from Disney World, Duke Energy, and Reedy Creek Improvement District all attending.
The farm has not been hidden, as it is immensely large, housing 48,000 solar panels and being visible from space. These panels power not only the resort, but surrounding hotels where park visitors stay. This is the current largest solar investment made by Epcot, but certainly not the first. Parts of the park and Epcot have been fueled by solar panels since 1982.
The plans and building of the farm were announced last year with Disney’s plan to reduce their carbon footprint by 50% by 2020. Besides the Mickey Mouse solar panel farm, Disney has begun running the resort’s trains on biodiesel from recycled cooking oil.