Madison County Farm Bureau Federation update

By Joy Foy

Madison County Farm Bureau Federation hosted a public meeting on March 13 to inform and allow citizens to get their questions answered concerning solar farms and the new Amazon Web Services (AWS) development. Madison County Farm Bureau President Russell Cauthen introduced Mississippi Farm Bureau President Mike McCormick, who gave an update on the farm bill and talked about the federal disaster farm payments. 

Jeff Jacobs, project manager and operations leader with EDP Renewables of Houston, Texas, began the presentation with an overview of the capabilities of solar panels and explained how the panels operate.  He explained that the power created at the Ragsdale Solar Park along highway 43 outside Canton is feeding electricity into Entergy lines through an arrangement with AWS. 

AWS purchases solar to give them some needed tax credits for green energy. 

Jacobs said that oftentimes smaller companies come into an area and “put together a project,” in hopes of flipping it with a company like EDP, which is how they are involved with Ragsdale.  He stressed that to know what is being considered for solar farms, watch for announcements in the paper or for a rezoning sign. 

The main things that a solar company takes into consideration is the location of transmission lines and single owned property. 

Jacobs surmised that between twelve to fourteen percent of electricity for Mississippi comes from solar. 

After a flurry of questions and answers, Chad Wages, civil engineer for the Amazon Web Services (AWS) project, talked about the five buildings under construction of the twelve planned over the next five years.  Four buildings will be built along Highland Colony Parkway in Ridgeland as phase two of the project.  After the Ridgeland project is completed, the other buildings will be constructed in Canton.   

The AWS project followed the Amazon-dot-com development to come to Canton.  The decision was made due mainly to the availability of sufficient and reliable power. There are approximately 175 people working on the construction of this project. 

The biggest obstacle now is getting easements for the sewer lines to Bettie Bluff Sewer Treatment plant.  The waste will be treated there, and then the clean water will be returned and used as a coolant for the computer rooms.   

Wages took questions at the end.  When the meeting was adjourned, the crowd of 55 continued to visit with the speakers and each other over brownies and drinks, as they were leaving.