Former U.S President Jimmy Carter Built Solar Farm That Powers Half His Hometown

May 31, 2020 by apost team

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter coordinated with solar company SolAmerica to build a 10-acre solar farm. The project, completed in 2017, now provides electricity to half of his hometown. The solar farm produces 1.3 Megawatts of power for Plains, Georgia, where the solar farm is located. Overall, the farm contains 3,852 solar panels in addition to 324 solar panels Carter commissioned.

Carter has always been a fervent supporter of renewable and solar energy and some people even consider him to be the father of the solar industry. Carter claims that his interest in renewable energy began as a young boy on his father's farm when his family installed a windmill to bring running water to the household.

In 1979, he had 32 solar panels installed to heat water for the White House. At the time he said, "a generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be just a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people."

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Carter's hometown project furthers his vision of solar energy as an exciting venture in American progress. He thanked the company which constructed the solar farm:

 "Rosalynn and I are very pleased to be part of SolAmerica's exciting solar project in Plains. Distributed, clean energy generation is critical to meeting growing energy needs around the world while fighting the effects of climate change. I am encouraged by the tremendous progress that solar and other clean energy solutions have made in recent years and expect those trends to continue."

SolAmerica's Executive VP George Mori responded that "there remains a great deal of untapped potential in renewable energy in Georgia and elsewhere in the U.S. We believe distributed solar projects like the Plains project will play a big role in fueling the energy needs of generations to come."

Plains, Georgia, where Carter grew up, is proud to have the former president living there still and is proud of the solar panels. One resident claims that tourists visit the town excited to see the solar farm for themselves.

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