Panola County is going solar and showing how even the deepest red states are embracing America’s clean energy boom
Earlier this year, Panola County, Mississippi, an agricultural community with an industrial past, began farming a new crop: sunlight. The community recently welcomed its two new solar farms by throwing a ceremonial “flip the switch” celebration. County officials also unveiled a new official county logo featuring solar panels and magnolia blossoms to mark the dawn of increased economic prosperity in a community with new access to renewable energy.
While renewables are taking off across the country — wind and solar power grew to 14.1% of total US power generation in 2023 — in Mississippi, that number is less than 1%. Projects like the ones in Panola are exciting because they hold the key to ensuring every community can share in, and benefit from, America’s clean energy boom — and, ultimately, to deciding whether America will achieve its net zero emissions goals.
Panola County’s new logo. Source: Clearloop
Why Mississippi?
Communities like Panola County are uniquely positioned to benefit from these projects. Like other parts of the US with fossil fuel-intensive electric grids, the area has been disproportionately affected by climate change and the health impacts of the air pollution from burning fossil fuels to produce electricity. When solar farms are strategically located in fossil fuel- and carbon-intensive parts of the grid, the clean energy they produce does more to reduce carbon emissions and improve health than if it were generated elsewhere. Because of the carbon intensity of the largely fossil-fuel-generated power that Panola County uses, the two new solar farms will avoid 50% more emissions than a similar project built in California.
When solar farms are strategically located in fossil fuel- and carbon-intensive parts of the grid, the clean energy they produce does more to reduce carbon emissions and improve health than if it were generated elsewhere.
By recognizing and confronting the deep and longstanding inequities of the US electric grid, the next stage of renewable energy deployment can significantly accelerate the pace of decarbonization for the entire country and begin to meaningfully address the long-standing health disparities that arise from environmental inequality. Renewable energy not only provides resilient, cost-effective, and independent power, but it can also attract the growing number of companies that want to power their operations with clean energy. Their investment can create new jobs and economic development opportunities for communities like Panola.
A region’s energy future at a crossroads
While energy demand has remained flat for the last 25 years, the emergence of technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud storage and the electrification of cars, buildings, and industry is driving substantial electric demand growth in regions across the country. In the sun-rich southeastern US, where renewable energy investments have lagged, regulators are now considering proposals that could lead to massive expansions of fossil gas power generation capacity and the continued operation of coal-fired power plants due to retire. This trend risks locking in higher emissions in regions where the carbon intensity of the electric grid is already higher than the national average and exacerbates existing health and environmental inequities.
Faster, better, cheaper
Accelerating the build-out of carbon-free, renewable energy sources like solar power has the potential to meet this growing power demand quickly and cost-effectively, keeping prices stable for businesses and consumers without increasing carbon emissions or harmful air pollution. However, we can only realize that potential if we address the market barriers that have slowed renewable energy development in the region.
As anyone outside on a summer day knows all too well, the Southeast is blessed with abundant sun. As Panola County and other communities demonstrate, plenty of people in the region are ready to say “yes in my backyard” and welcome opportunities to turn that sunlight into cleaner power and the health and economic developments it can bring. Some credit conservative politics for the lack of clean energy deployment in these states, but Texas — a politically conservative state with a powerful fossil fuel industry — just overtook California to claim the leading spot for solar deployment. Meanwhile, neighboring Louisiana, a similarly red state with a significant oil industry, gets less than a third of one percent of its power from wind and solar — a hundred-fold difference between states with similar solar resources, land costs, economies, and politics.
A historic choice
The reality is that politics aside, building solar in some parts of the country is significantly easier and more incentivized than it is in others. Where deploying renewables is practical and incentivized, the market is delivering rapid decarbonization in red and blue states alike. In more other areas, including many southeastern states, factors such as an aging electric infrastructure which can make connecting renewable energy projects to the grid a challenging and expensive proposition, and the absence of wholesale electric markets which limits revenue potential and increases price uncertainty, the market simply isn’t delivering.
Where deploying renewables is practical and incentivized, the market is delivering rapid decarbonization in red and blue states alike
But this isn’t just a problem for the market. With power demand growing, the region faces a high-stakes choice. Will we follow Panola’s lead and find innovative clean energy solutions to overcome traditional market barriers? Or will we double down on fossil fuels and lock in a generation of increased carbon emissions, negative health impacts, and economic marginalization?
Creating a more transparent and fair voluntary offset market
One powerful way to tip the balance in this decision is to improve how companies measure their progress in achieving their climate commitments. Companies big and small have committed to doing their part to make a difference in climate, and they are putting their money where their mouths are. Almost 9,000 companies have committed to science-based climate targets and are working to reduce emissions across their operations and supply chains.
Yet the methodologies that many companies use to measure carbon emissions from electric power generation fail to take into account the deep disparities in the carbon intensity of the power grid in different locations. This approach treats all US renewable energy projects as equal when they have significantly different impacts on climate, air pollution, and health, removing the incentive for companies to maximize the positive impacts of their actions by investing in projects like those in Panola. Treating all renewable energy projects equally has another impact: It makes it harder for economically disadvantaged communities with high pollution levels who stand to gain the most from clean energy to compete for renewable projects.
Clearloop’s approach to carbon accounting can maximize both the carbon and social benefits of renewable energy investments. We are pioneering the concept of “emissionality,” by the environmental tech nonprofit emissions data company WattTime. By measuring marginal emissions data, we can quantify the specific change in emissions caused by a change in electric power supply or demand on the grid based on how power is generated in a given region at a given time. For example, this data lets us see that putting a new solar plant near Louisville, Kentucky, will reduce emissions by over 70% more than that same plant would outside of Boston, Massachusetts. In other words, by using marginal emissions rates and the distressed communities index to locate projects where they will displace the most carbon-intensive power, we are able to determine where the environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy are most needed.
We believe this standard will lead to more honest and effective carbon accounting practices that can improve the impact of voluntary corporate climate actions. When companies have the tools to measure the real carbon impact of renewable energy projects, they can understand the value of investing in carbon-intense regions and prioritize projects that will have the most significant impact.
This approach also has the potential to improve the credibility of the carbon offset market. Verifiable domestic carbon credits are critical to decarbonization but have been heavily criticized due to their lack of transparency and meaningful, demonstrable environmental benefits. Done well, they have the potential to address the market failures keeping renewable energy from being deployed in the regions of the country that are currently the most adversely affected by fossil fuel energy generation. Done badly, they have the potential to aid and abet greenwashing.
The next phase of our country’s renewable energy build-out can’t be conducted without visibility into where and how we’re building projects and measuring carbon
Emissionality makes it easier to measure and verify a project’s impact on our environment, showing us the real benefits of locating renewable energy resources in the areas most are needed. By recognizing and acting on these inequities, carbon markets can be a powerful tool to overcome market barriers and bring projects to life in the communities where they can do the most good. We know this model can work; it already works in Panola County, Mississippi.
A bright future in Panola — and beyond
Since we started the Panola project, corporate buyers nationwide have signed contracts for over 71 GW of renewable energy capacity — enough to power nearly 15 million American homes. Yet, according to an analysis by the Rhodium Group, US greenhouse gas emissions fell by 1.9% in 2023 — not nearly fast enough to achieve our climate goals. By measuring and valuing the environmental impacts of investing in areas with carbon-intensive grids, we can give corporate sustainability managers the data and tools they need to deploy their resources in historically underserved areas like Panola, where they can help accelerate decarbonization while driving investments into communities where they can do the best. This approach has the potential to head off a disastrous build-out of new fossil fuel power, ensure that the entire grid actively benefits from the growing green economy, and do the most good overall.
We have reached a promising crossroads in the future of energy. The next phase of our country’s renewable energy build-out can’t be conducted without visibility into where and how we’re building projects and measuring carbon. Corporations have the power to help focus our deployment of renewable energy resources in areas of the country where they will make the most significant impact on the climate. This goes beyond increasing the effectiveness of climate investments, it can also begin to address historical health and economic inequity rooted in sharing pollution burdens. By measuring what matters and partnering with local communities, we can overcome market obstacles and integrate renewable energy into a community’s fabric — and even the county logo — generating power, economic empowerment, and a brighter, cleaner future.
Featured photo source: Clearloop
