Working with the teams at Barefoot Books and WAP Sustainability, Stacy ensured that the carbon footprint associated with the printing, binding, shipping, mailing and promotion of her new book, Planet Power: Explore the World’s Renewable Energy, would be offset by solar power.
Stacy Clark speaking to 39 News’s Makayla Davis about her partnership with Clearloop and other highlights from Clearloop’s September 2, 2021 groundbreaking. The day was punctuated by the official shovel-in-the-ground celebration, a sun-centric playlist, comments by sponsors and tours with the Tennessee ewes, who happily “mow the grass.” Their owners, Dana Young and Trey Lawrence, explained to the crowd, “These girls don’t mind hopping on the trailer and moving from farm to farm.”
Stacy partnered with Nashville-based solar power solutions company Clearloop Corporation to become one of twelve partners supporting a one megawatt solar farm in Jackson, Tennessee. As Clearloop’s CEO Laura Zapata remarked, “A book about the environment is helping the environment!”
Clearloop’s solar farm will power 200 homes over 40 years with clean, renewable electrons (electricity), helping to grow a newly skilled work force and well-paying jobs in a carbon-intensive region, where access to renewable energy options has been limited.
Clearloop brings new business opportunities to western TN, as it partners with the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (located across the street from the project), the Jackson, TN Chamber of Commerce and local businesses like Tall Oak Farms, whose sheep are the diligent groundskeepers for the project. The ewes “mow the grass” under and around the solar panels, creating a kind of agri-voltaic synchronicity. In this way, Clearloop’s solar farm will help to keep the soil mineral-rich, while also ensuring that an important carbon sink remains in place.
The solar farm, combined with natural farming activities, also helps to catalyze opportunities for students and adult learners. The adjacent technology college will be an important venue for students looking to stack their engineering, agriculture and technological credentials in the renewable energy space.
Stacy’s home and office have been powered by the sun and the wind for 18 years, thanks to Austin, TX-based Green Mountain Energy’s 100% renewable energy electricity packages. Green Mountain entered the renewable energy space early, noting that the demand was growing for low-carbon electricity. As more and more clean energy options go online in the months and years ahead, the price for clean power will continue to drop, as it has already done in many states and countries. With lower prices comes increased demand and this is how the renewable energy transition will improve the way that towns, cities, states and countries power their homes, transportation, businesses and schools.