Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Ted Turner returns to solar
Email 
Print
U.S. billionaire Ted Turner is taking a shine to solar power — again.
Back in 2007, Turner sold solar developer Turner Renewable Energy to solar panel maker First Solar for $34.4 million — which has since ramped up its push into developing its own solar power projects.
Now Turner is teaming up with Atlanta-based utility Southern Company to develop renewable energy in the United States. To start, they will focus on large-scale solar farms in the U.S. Southwest, where solar development is already heating up in states like California and Arizona.
Some of the projects could end up on Turner’s land. He is the largest individual land owner in North America with more than two million acres.
The move could expand the reach of Southern Company, which serves customers in Georgia, Mississippi and Florida and has more than 42 gigawatts of generating capacity.
(Photo: Philanthropist Ted Turner speaks during a panel discussion at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York in September 2009. Photo credit: Chip East / Reuters)
Comments RSSPost Your Comment
Ted Turner is no fool. He can see the growing global concensus on renewable energy and solar power. In light of the BP disaster and the ever decreasing brown and black coal deposits, Mr Turner is getting in first. I assume he will be pushing some major solar projects within the next 5 years.