North Stonington ― A solar farm obscured by the woods off Ella Wheeler Road in the town’s southeastern corner has been generating 20 megawatts of electricity for the grid as well as revenue for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which owns the land.

Adapture Renewables, an Oakland, Calif.-based developer, announced last week that it had completed the North Stonington Solar Center, which has been up and running since October, according to David FitzGerald, Adapture’s director of project management and engineering.

Twenty megawatts powers about 4,000 homes.

FitzGerald said the facility ― a fenced-off array of solar panels covering 127 acres ― will help the state achieve its clean-energy goals. Adapture is leasing a total of 162 acres.

Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation in 2022 that codified Connecticut’s commitment to a zero-carbon electric grid by 2040, meaning that by then the state’s electricity must be generated by such renewable forms of energy as solar and wind rather than natural gas and oil. Many experts consider the goal ambitious.

In 2022, electricity from both zero-carbon and carbon-based electric generation resources in the state decreased from 2021, according to the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality’s 2022 annual report, released earlier this year. The amount of zero-carbon electricity ― as a percentage of the total amount of electricity generated in the state ― also decreased.

“Including out-of-state generation resources, it is estimated that in 2021, approximately 62 percent of the electricity supplied to electric customers in the state was from zero carbon resources,” the report says.

The North Stonington solar farm, built during the COVID-19 pandemic, is the second such facility Adapture has developed in the Northeast, the other being the 12.7-megawatt Hope Solar Farm in Cranston, R.I., which went online in 2019.

Adapture also has developed or acquired solar facilities in California, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas.

FitzGerald, who said Adapture works through a network of business developers to find suitable sites for solar farms, first met years ago with Mashantucket officials at the tribe’s Foxwoods Resort Casino. He said leasing land from the tribe was “a win win,” for both parties.

Adapture’s leases in such situations usually extend 30 to 40 years, FitzGerald said.

“Renewable energy is a valuable investment in our region, and we are thrilled to host a solar installation that will support the community and region with clean energy,” Rodney Butler, the Mashantucket chairman, said in a statement. “We found a supportive and collaborative development partner in the Adapture Renewables team, who worked closely with us to ensure our needs around the land were met and the project was a success.”

Lori Potter, a Mashantucket spokeswoman, said the tribe has a large real estate portfolio in southeastern Connecticut and “proactively” considers all inquiries.

“We look for opportunities with developers, investors, and the towns to best utilize our properties for economic development for the tribe,” Potter wrote in an email. “Each project and development is based on the location and specific conditions and zoning restrictions of the site. The solar farm project made sense because the land was already largely cleared and was historically used as farmland.”

She said the tribe is especially interested in sustainable, “green” energy initiatives on and off its reservation.

“Ultimately, the tribe looks for partners who not only have similar values to ours but also want to enhance a property to leverage its highest and best use, while also striving to be as sustainable as possible,” Potter wrote. “... We are also interested in housing development.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com