Press Mention Action News 5 (WMC) March 13, 2023
Topical Mention
Shelby County cuts ribbon on first local solar farm
In this mention
Shelby County, Tennessee officially opened its first solar arrays at two government buildings—the Construction Code Enforcement facility and the East Data Center—making them net-zero energy buildings. Mayor Lee Harris marked the occasion as "MLGW Independence Day" and emphasized the importance of local climate action, signaling plans to green the county fleet and encourage public transit use.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Shelby County has officially begun the process of combating climate change on the local level.
The ribbon was officially cut on the solar arrays at Shelby County Construction Code Enforcement and the Shelby County East Data Center, marking the first solar project by a local government entity to generate power.
These arrays are able to fully power two buildings, making them net zero energy buildings.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris was joined by many other city officials who worked together to make all of this possible.
"We think this is the first step in a process to combat climate change at the local level because everybody's gotta be engaged in this process if we're gonna do something about the environmental changes that we see. And I want to preserve what we have for the next generation," Harris said. "So this is step one, we'll also be talking about how to green our fleet; so look out for that, and we're also trying to work with MATA to encourage more people to take public transit."
Mayor Harris dubbed Tuesday "MLGW Independence Day" to mark the celebration.