The future of solar energy in South Carolina is glowing with potential, as highlighted in The Economic Impact of the Solar Industry in South Carolina. This report, prepared by Dr. Joseph C. Von Nessen of the University of South Carolina, offers a compelling look at how the state’s solar industry is poised to deliver profound economic benefits while helping meet rising energy demands.
By 2035, the solar sector is projected to quadruple its current annual economic impact, injecting up to $19 billion into the state’s economy over the next decade. This growth in the solar sector will create more than 3,000 jobs and stimulate South Carolina’s economy while utilizing a maximum of 1.4 percent of agricultural land, allowing the state to position itself as a leader in solar development.
The Palmetto State has every reason to embrace a bright, sustainable energy future, but a lot has to happen for South Carolina to take advantage of this potential.
Is South Carolina ready for solar growth?
Legislative and utility program opportunities exist. Is the workforce ready? What about other land options besides agricultural land?
Legislation and Utility Programs
House legislation has been pre-filed to help move things forward. It is now up to legislators to ensure that renewables legislation will continue accelerating solar generation in South Carolina.
In addition to legislation, utility programs can be an opportunity or a roadblock for solar growth. Programs such as Duke Energy’s PowerPair, being piloted in North Carolina, can boost the opportunity to generate electricity from solar. Residents, public entities, businesses, and industry would all benefit from this opportunity. These programs need to be opened up to provide this opportunity to make these entities resilient.
Workforce
With this growth comes a need for more people in the solar industry to install, sell, and fulfill management and administrative roles at solar companies. Is South Carolina ready? Are the technical colleges and universities providing solar workforce training? Are high schools educating on renewable energy? There are great programs at Coastal Carolina University, Lexington Richland 5, and Richland School District Two; and new programs like the one by Solar United National are also paving the way for the solar workforce. The South Carolina Energy Office is a great resource for energy workforce training.
Let’s learn from these programs, expand education, and grow the solar workforce so South Carolina is ready for the demand.
It’s not just agricultural land
This new report acknowledges that 1.4% of agricultural land is a conservative estimate, which is correct. In addition to agricultural land, solar can also be installed on the roofs of homes, multifamily buildings, communities, churches, commercial buildings, land adjacent to churches, warehouses/distribution centers, roofs of industrial facilities, land adjacent to industrial facilities, military bases, healthcare facilities, etc.

South Carolina’s future is so bright we have to wear shades. Let’s harness this sun to generate electricity and usher in a bright future for the next generation.
The post South Carolina’s Solar Future is Bright appeared first on SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Renewable Energy
Sticking with Science
It appears that this is precisely what happened to Dr. Fauci during the COVID-19 pandemic. He ran into the perfect storm of anti-science crackpots, and the far right-wing, often counterfactual media, e.g., Fox News and Newsmax.
There are still people who believe that, after 50 years of service, working under five different presidents, his statements about the disease were aimed at crippling the U.S. economy.
Renewable Energy
On the Passing of Grateful Dead Co-founder Bob Weir
A reader notes: I’d like to think virtually no musician has lived a better life than Bob Weir. More than 60 years touring and doing what he loved. We should all strive for that much joy in our lives.
This rings completely true in the world of rock/blues music.
And in classical music, the situation is notable worse, as many of our heroes like Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin lived brief and/or disease-ridden lives.
There were exceptions, however.
Gioacchino Rossini (pictured), known mostly for his operas, loved fine food and drink and lived to be 76 years old.
Louie Moreau Gottschalk, the first American musical celebrity, who was, I’m told, as popular in the mid-19th Century as Elvis Presley was in the mid-20th, traveled the world, playing his intricate piano pieces, and “hanging out” (shall we say) with beautiful ladies.
Renewable Energy
Ørsted Loses €1.5M Daily, Equinor Sets Empire Wind Deadline
Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Ørsted Loses €1.5M Daily, Equinor Sets Empire Wind Deadline
Allen covers the deepening US offshore wind crisis as Ørsted reports losing €1.5 million daily on American projects and Equinor sets a January 16 deadline to resume or cancel Empire Wind. Meanwhile, onshore wind thrives with Invenergy’s 2GW Oklahoma project and AES repowering Buffalo Gap in Texas with Vestas turbines.
Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter 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 YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!
Danish energy giant Ørsted said it is losing one and a half million euros on US offshore projects. Every. Single. Day. Norwegian company Equinor has drawn a line in the sand. January sixteenth. Resume construction on Empire Wind… or cancel the whole thing. 3.5 billion euros invested. Sixty percent complete. And now… a deadline. As we all know, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued stop-work orders on December twenty-second. Just before Christmas. A gift nobody wanted. Ørsted has filed complaints. First on Revolution Wind. Then Sunrise Wind. Court documents reveal the Danish company stands to lose more than 5 billion euros if forced to abandon both projects. Meanwhile… President Trump signed an executive order withdrawing America from sixty-six international organizations. Many focused on energy cooperation. On climate. Ole Rydahl Svensson of Green Power Denmark calls it a sad development. But not surprising. Ole says America is abdicating from renewable energy… in favor of energy forms of the past. The empty seats will be filled quickly, he predicts. By China. By Europe. I personally get asked every week by my European friends, is US onshore wind also under attack?? I think the answer is not yet. While offshore wind projects sit paralyzed by federal orders… Out in the Oklahoma Panhandle… something different is happening. Invenergy is planning a three hundred wind turbine wind farm. Two gigawatts of power. Enough electricity for eight hundred fifty thousand American homes. According to recent filings the turbines will be supplied by GE Vernova. Invenergy already operates wind farms in ten Oklahoma counties. They’ve already built the largest single-phase wind park in North America outside of Oklahoma City. Four billion dollars of investment. Five hundred construction jobs. Thirty permanent positions. No stop-work orders. No court battles. No international incidents. And down near Abilene Texas, AES is repowering its Buffalo Gap wind farm – the existing 282 turbines will be replaced with 117 new Vestas V150 4.5MW turbines. $94 million in tax revenue for local counties and schools over its lifetime. It will also create 300 jobs during peak construction and 17 long-term operations jobs. So while the US oceans remain off-limits… While billions evaporate in legal fees and idle vessels… The wind industry continues to move forward. And that’s the state of the wind industry for January 12, 2026. Join us for the Uptime Wind Energy Podcast tomorrow.
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