Construction is nearing completion on Baker County’s first two solar power farms, the larger of which is about six miles southeast of Baker City.

That array of about 50,000 panels is nearly a mile south of Interstate 84.

Enerparc Solar Projects LLC of Oakland, California, is building that solar farm as well as a second project near Unity, in southern Baker County.

Construction manager Douglas Stevens said work on the Sutton Creek project started Aug. 30, and company officials expect the farm to be online around Dec. 15.

“This one is fast-paced,” Stevens said.

Currently, workers are driving in piles — the metal bars that will hold the solar panels. The piles have be driven a minimum of six feet into the ground.

Stevens said he hopes to have the 50,000 panels installed within two weeks. The panels are on motorized tracks that shift the panels as the sun moves to maximize power production.

The Sutton Creek project will cost an estimated $2.65 million, according to a permit issued by the Baker City-County Building Department.

The company paid almost $27,000 in permit fees.

The solar array will produce 15 megawatts of power. That’s enough to power approximately 3,000 homes.

The Unity project, which should be finished soon and go online in mid-November, will produce about 2.75 megawatts from an array covering about 23 acres.

Stevens said about 35 people are working on the Sutton Creek solar farm, including employees from contractor Vale Electric Inc.

Crews are also finishing a substation near Interstate 84 that will connect the solar farm to Idaho Power Company’s transmission line.

Work on the substation started in early July, according to Idaho Power, which is building the substation.

Both the solar farm and the substation are on property owned by Hat Brand Land & Livestock LLC of Baker City.

Brent Gyllenberg is Hat Brand’s manager.

Enerparc applied in March for a permit to divide Hat Brand’s parcel into two parts. The one where the solar panels are being installed is 549.6 acres, and the site for the substation, between I-84 and Old Highway 30, is slightly larger than half an acre.