100-megawatt Sunflower solar station unveiled in Mississippi Delta

Entergy unveiled Mississippi’s largest solar power plant Thursday with the completion of a 100-megawatt station near Ruleville in Sunflower County.

The Sunflower Solar Station in the Mississippi Delta will provide enough energy to power 16,000 homes.

“It’s a historic day for Entergy Mississippi, our customers and our state,” Entergy Mississippi president and CEO Haley Fisackerly said prior to the unveiling. “Powering communities is the heart of our business, and this power station will do that in several ways — by providing clean, green power to customers and a hedge against rising natural gas prices, and giving industries with renewable energy goals an incentive to locate or expand operations in our state.”

According to Entergy, the solar station is the first plant in what will be the largest expansion of renewable power in the state’s history. Under a program called EDGE, for “Economic Development with Green Energy,” the company plans to replace some aging natural gas plants with 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy over the next five years.

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Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, developed and built the Sunflower Solar Station for Entergy, which will own it for the life of the facility.

The Sunflower Solar Station employed Mississippi vendors and construction workers. Attala Steel, based in Kosciusko, supplied 2,475 tons of steel for foundations. Additionally, A-1 Kendrick Fencing Company, based in Jackson, installed the perimeter fence.

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“We are proud to have commissioned the largest solar project in Mississippi on behalf of Entergy in a way that has supported Mississippi businesses and paved the way for more renewable energy in the state,” Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Office of Canadian Solar, said in a statement. “Sunflower is our first build-own-transfer project and our first project in Mississippi."

The solar station was built on 1,000 acres in Sunflower County and connects to Entergy’s transmission grid in Ruleville. The plant is a single axis tracking photovoltaic power generator with 272,000 PV modules.

Entergy began studying solar as a renewable energy source in 2016 when the company built three solar pilot project sites in Brookhaven, Hinds and DeSoto counties. 

"The solar pilot projects helped answer many questions about solar in Mississippi and were the genesis for this larger project," Fisackerly said.

There are other solar projects in the works across Mississippi, although not necessarily association with Entergy.

Amazon announced plans last November to build a solar farm in Mississippi.

The project is part of a company launch of new renewable energy projects throughout the U.S., Canada, Finland and Spain. Amazon officials say they plan to decarbonize business operations and reach net-zero carbon by 2040.

The 175-megawatt solar farm will be located in Scott County, according to a map of planned renewable energy projects released by Amazon. It’s projected to come online in 2024.

MORE: Amazon prepping for another facility in Mississippi, this time in Madison County

Amazon also announced another facility to be constructed in Mississippi, in Madison County.

It purchased 69.02 acres of land in an area zoned for industrial use. The purchase site is in 1,027 acres of undeveloped area zoned for industrial activity called the Madison County Mega Site. The site is off Nissan Parkway and Mississippi  22 about a mile to the west of Interstate 55. 

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or at 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.