Former President (and arguably the GOAT of post-presidency careers) Jimmy Carter is leasing 10 acres of his Georgia peanut farm to SolAmerica to create a 1.3MW solar array.
Carter, an early advocate and leader of the renewable energy movement during his tenure in the White House, commented, "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." President Carter created the Department of Energy and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), and signed the Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURPA), all catalysts for the advancement of renewable energy in the U.S. Carter was also the first president to put solar panels on the White House.
While 1.3 megawatts isn’t going to power Georgia—the exact number of homes it could power is just north of 200—but Carter is using his celebrity and longstanding support of solar to help promote the benefits of his 1978 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA). Carter won’t benefit from the renewable energy himself, but under PURPA utilities in the territory will be able to pass on lower electric costs to everyone in that utility territory. It also promotes the fact that landowners can lease their land for solar projects and be financially compensated—hopefully advancing more renewable solar arrays.