Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

2 Reasons Solar Is Booming in Trump Country: Price and Energy Independence

Inside Climate News: When Brandon Presley was elected to the Mississippi Public Service Commission in 2007, he said, he couldn't have found a solar farm "with a SWAT team and a search warrant."

A decade later, Mississippi is one of the fastest-growing solar markets in the United States, according to GTM Research. The state's public service commission approved several solar projects this summer, and the state is expected to gain more than 700 megawatts of solar capacity over the next five years.

One of the its newest projects is a 52-megawatt solar farm near Hattiesburg. A partnership between Mississippi Power, the state's largest utility, and Silicon Ranch, a solar energy company based in Nashville, Tennessee, the 450-acre solar farm will eventually power 6,500 homes.

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