Jeremy Porter can see beauty in many things: cars, go-carts, motorcycles – even solar panels.
As chief executive of the Atlanta Motorsports Park (AMP) in Dawsonville, Georgia, Porter is turning his speedway into a clean-energy haven, which is promoting renewable energy, recycling, and the transition to electric vehicles.
“Personally, I think solar arrays are beautiful,” he says. “I want to create a facility that is a premier destination for our customers, but also one that is making a difference in the environment.”
The facility recently installed a 402-kilowatt (kW) solar array that will power about 60% of the daily operational electrical needs at the facility – a total of five buildings.
Left: Tracks at the Atlanta Motorsports Park (AMP) in Dawsonville, Georgia (Photo courtesy of Atlanta Motorsports Park). Right: Solar arrays at the AMP. Photos courtesy of Hannah Solar.
“The ability to generate over half of our energy needs through solar pushes us closer to our vision of making AMP’s campus its own self-sustaining community and resort,” he says. “We are thrilled at our ability to reduce strain on the local grid while achieving a substantial positive environmental impact.”
In Dawson County, AMP is already the largest recycler, including used tires and asphalt. AMP also utilizes recycled guardrails from the highway. That commitment to sustainability is appealing to new residents. AMP boasts some 300 condos, which have attracted plenty of current and future buyers.
AMP echoes a nationwide effort by NASCAR, which is aiming to lower the sport’s carbon footprint to zero by 2035.
Federal Funding Slashed Costs
Porter worked with Georgia-based companies Hannah Solar and Amicalola EMC on the solar project and was able to recoup 50% of its total costs thanks to a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Energy for America (REAP) grant.
He says AMP hired a grant writer to help them through the process and was “pleasantly surprised” when the facility was awarded a grant.
REAP grants support small businesses and agricultural producers in rural areas, making renewable energy technologies like solar and energy efficiency improvements more accessible and affordable. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, over $2 billion in REAP funding has been allocated through 2031.
Solar Panels Made at Qcells in Georgia
The solar panels at the AMP facility were manufactured at the Qcells’ Dalton, Georgia, factory, which manufactures nearly 30,000 solar panels per day and employs around 500 workers. Qcells is not only a Georgia success story but a national one as well. Qcells has transformed Dalton from once being known as the “carpet capital of the world” to now being the largest producer of American-made solar panels.
“Whenever we can keep it local – we will do that,” says Porter.
The installation can generate 450,300 kWh of solar power annually, which will offset more than 7,000 pounds of CO2 emissions over a 30-year period.
Left to right: Tracks lit up at night at the Atlanta Motorsports Park (AMP) in Dawsonville, Georgia; Jeremy Porter, chief executive of AMP; electric vehicle chargers at AMP.
AMP is serious about sustainable operations in other ways, too. The facility also has all LED lighting and solar-powered CCTV/Signs. The site also recently added electric vehicle (EV) chargers: 10 Level 3 DC Superchargers; and 8 Level 2 chargers.
“We often host film crews shooting footage of cars in action,” he says. “Our Superchargers mean they can be more productive with those cars. Plus, it gives many of our customers easy access to chargers when they visit the facility.”
Porter sees EV racing as another offering AMP may have in the future.
“I always want to be innovating,” he says. “It’s exciting to create something new, but also do right by the environment.”
Get Involved in the Clean Energy Generation
Examples of clean energy innovation are everywhere, whether it’s a solar-powered speedway, an EV charger at your local coffee shop, or a heat pump in your basement. As the Clean Energy Generation, we’re alive amidst unprecedented climate disruption, but also during a historic push for clean energy – and there’s a role for all of us. To learn more about actions you can take, meet others from across the Southeast, and get inspired by more stories like this one, we invite you to say “I’m in!” and join the movement using the buttons below.
Join the Clean Energy Generation
The post Atlanta Motorsports Park Revs Up With Solar Power appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Weather Guard Lightning Tech
Australia’s $17B Grid Expansion, Recycling Blades to Steel
Allen covers Suzlon hitting 2 GW in a single Indian state, Nabrawind’s crane-free turbine install in Namibia, Antora’s South Dakota thermal battery, Australia’s $17 billion grid expansion, and Shimizu recycling old turbine blades into steel.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly email update on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary Barnes’ YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
GOOD MORNING.
The wind industry is not just getting bigger.
It is getting smarter.
And today … we have the proof.
Let us start in India.
SUZLON GROUP just crossed a milestone.
Two gigawatts of wind orders … in a single Indian state.
The latest deal … sixty-five turbines at three megawatts each
for a company called SUNSURE ENERGY.
SUNSURE is not a utility.
It is an independent power producer
building round-the-clock clean energy
for data centers … electric vehicles … and heavy industry.
Wind paired with solar and battery storage.
Power that does not stop when the sun goes down.
SUZLON is already building six hundred and sixty-four megawatts
of additional commercial and industrial projects in the same region.
And SUNSURE … backed by PARTNERS GROUP of Switzerland …
has seven gigawatts in development across India
with a target of ten gigawatts by two thousand thirty.
That is not government-led.
That is private capital chasing wind.
Now … across the ocean to Africa.
A Spanish company called NABRAWIND [NAH-brah-wind]
just solved a problem that has plagued remote wind farms for years.
How do you install a turbine
when you cannot get a crane to the site?
Their answer is a system called SKYLIFT.
No heavy-lift cranes. None.
A self-erecting tower combined with a blade installation tool
they call the BLADERUNNER.
They just put up a GOLDWIND six-megawatt turbine
at a wind farm in NAMIBIA.
And here is the part that changes the math.
Traditional crane installation needs calm air.
Six to eight meters per second. Maximum.
NABRAWIND’s system works in fifteen meters per second sustained …
with gusts up to twenty.
That site blows hard. All the time.
Which is exactly why they chose it.
When complete … seven turbines …
two hundred and thirty gigawatt-hours a year.
About six percent of NAMIBIA’s entire electricity demand.
NABRAWIND was acquired by Australia’s FORTESCUE last year
as part of its industrial decarbonization push.
So India is stacking private-sector wind orders.
Africa is installing turbines without cranes.
And in SOUTH DAKOTA …
they are storing the wind itself.
A California startup called ANTORA ENERGY
just built a five-gigawatt-hour thermal battery
at an ethanol plant in BIG STONE CITY.
More than two hundred solid carbon blocks.
When the wind blows at night and nobody needs the power …
the blocks absorb cheap electricity and heat up.
When the plant needs energy …
the blocks release heat or generate electricity
through special cells that capture light
from superheated material.
Think of it as a giant toaster oven battery.
Full power expected by October.
The plant’s president put it simply.
Nobody has got a switch for the wind.
It blows when it wants to blow.
Now … down under.
The AUSTRALIAN government just announced
the biggest single expansion of its electricity grid.
Nineteen renewable energy projects.
Seven-point-eight gigawatts of generation.
Seven-point-nine gigawatt-hours of battery storage.
Seventeen billion dollars in private investment.
Nineteen thousand construction jobs.
Power for four million homes.
Among the largest … RWE’s [arr-vay’s] THEODORE wind farm in QUEENSLAND.
One-point-one gigawatts. Up to one hundred and seventy turbines.
Three billion Australian dollars.
RWE … the same company building offshore wind
in England and Denmark …
is now building onshore in AUSTRALIA.
And the AUSTRALIAN government is not stopping.
They just opened the next round of tenders.
Another five gigawatts.
Finally … JAPAN.
Major contractor SHIMIZU [shee-MEE-zoo] CORPORATION
has developed a way to recycle old wind turbine blades.
Not into park benches. Not into landfill.
Into steel.
The blades are cut and crushed into a material
that goes into electric furnaces
to adjust the carbon content of steel …
making it harder and stronger.
JAPAN expects to replace one hundred to two hundred turbines a year
by the two thousand thirties.
That is two to three thousand tonnes of blade waste. Annually.
SHIMIZU has built about twenty percent
of the wind power facilities in JAPAN.
They see this technology as a way to grow
their entire wind energy business.
So … let us step back.
India stacks two gigawatts of private-sector wind orders.
Africa installs turbines in gale-force winds … without a crane.
South Dakota stores surplus wind in superheated carbon blocks.
Australia backs nineteen projects with seventeen billion dollars.
And Japan turns old blades into stronger steel.
From the factory floor to the scrap yard …
from the wind farm to the furnace …
the industry is solving problems
at every stage of a turbine’s life.
And that’s the state of the wind industry for the 25th of May 2026.
Join us for the UPTIME WIND ENERGY PODCAST tomorrow.
We’ve all heard ideas like the one being expressed here, though this one sounds extreme. Jail sentence? Education is exclusively an exercise in pounding in bad habits?
What’s the outcome for students in the very worst of our schools that make no attempt whatsoever to help its pupils learn to think critically? Well, their kids learn to:
- Read and write
- Do math, at least through algebra
- Understand some level of history and geography
- Make friends and get along with others
- Establish independence from the parents
- Gain the qualifications for employment
What’s the alternative? Illiteracy? Social isolation? Child labor? Poverty? Neurotic sloth? Being a burden on society?
Is it a coincidence that the countries with the best educated children are the happiest, sanest and most productive nations on the planet?
If you’re a competent woman working at the highest echelon in the U.S. government, better start packing your bags.
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