Mississippi Clean Energy Guide

Mississippi is a natural-gas and nuclear state that is only now building a renewables sector worth the name. Gas supplies roughly three-quarters of in-state generation and the single Grand Gulf reactor is the largest carbon-free source; solar barely cleared 3.7% of electricity in early 2026, and the state got its first utility-scale wind farm only in April 2024. What makes Mississippi worth watching is not a clean-energy mandate — there isn't one — but a $25 billion Amazon data-center buildout now pulling solar, storage, and possibly a second reactor onto the grid.

No RPS, No SREC Market, No Mandate

Mississippi has no renewable portfolio standard and no mandatory clean-energy target. It is one of five Deep South states — with Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana — that never adopted an RPS, which is why there is no SREC market here at all. Everything that gets built happens because a utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority, or a corporate offtaker wants it, not because a statute requires it. That is the single most important fact about this market: renewable growth is entirely demand-pull, driven by voluntary utility procurement, TVA's Green Invest program, and large corporate PPAs like Amazon's.

The Generation Mix

On an EIA-based rolling 12-month basis (April 2025 to March 2026), natural gas supplies about 75% of Mississippi's electricity, nuclear more than 13%, and coal more than 5%. True renewables are led by solar at roughly 4%, with biomass around 2% and wind still minimal. The state generated 77,336,712 MWh net in 2024. The largest single clean asset is not a solar farm at all: it is Grand Gulf Nuclear Station in Claiborne County, at roughly 1,443 MWe the largest single-unit nuclear plant in the United States, supplying about a fifth of the state's power. Any honest accounting of Mississippi's low-carbon electricity starts with that reactor.

Net Metering and Incentives

Mississippi does run a distributed-generation program — rebranded “net renewable generation” — that requires investor-owned utilities Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power to credit behind-the-meter renewables. A 2022 revision added a $3,500 upfront rebate per residential install, mandated that at least 50% of program funds benefit low-income households, layered on a 2 cent/kWh low-income adder, and grandfathered systems for 25 years, with utility budgets capped at $10M/yr (Entergy MS) and $5M/yr (Mississippi Power). In early January 2025 the PSC set Entergy Mississippi's value of excess distributed generation at 5.5 cents/kWh (non-low-income) and 7.5 cents/kWh (low-income eligible).

• No state solar tax credit: Mississippi offers no statewide personal or corporate solar tax credit and no solar-specific property-tax exemption; residents rely on the federal ITC and the PSC rebate.
• Local ad valorem deals: Utility-scale projects are typically supported through fee-in-lieu tax agreements negotiated with counties and the Mississippi Development Authority.
• Utility and TVA procurement: The real driver is RFP-based buying by Entergy Mississippi and Mississippi Power, plus TVA's Green Invest corporate program.

The Projects That Actually Got Built

Utility-scale solar scaled fast after 2022. Cleanview counts 26 operating solar farms totaling roughly 1,724 MW-AC, with another 41 in development at about 6,057 MW; SEIA pegs installed capacity at 2,052 MW-dc, 28th nationally, enough to power around 221,167 homes, backed by $2.4 billion in cumulative investment. Origis Energy is the dominant builder, and the Tennessee Valley Authority is the dominant offtaker.

• Golden Triangle I (Lowndes County): 200 MW-AC solar plus 50 MW storage by Origis Energy for TVA, online January 2025 — the largest solar farm in the state.
• Optimist (Clay County): 200 MW-AC solar plus 50 MW storage by Origis for TVA, reaching commercial operation around January 2026.
• Golden Triangle II (Lowndes County): 150 MW-AC solar plus 50 MW storage by Origis for TVA, commercial operation May 21, 2024.
• Pearl River Solar Park (Scott County): 175 MW by EDP Renewables on roughly 1,400 acres near Morton, online July 2024.
• Sunflower Solar Station (Sunflower County): 100 MW, 272,000 panels on about 1,000 acres near Ruleville — Entergy Mississippi's first utility-scale solar plant, in service late 2022.
• Delta Wind (Tunica County): 184.5 MW, 41 Vestas turbines by AES, online April 2024 and selling power to Amazon — the state's first and only utility-scale wind farm.

Notice the pattern: a wind sector that is one project deep, and a solar fleet whose biggest names all trace back to a single developer feeding TVA. This is an early-stage market, not a diversified one.

Siting Is a County Fight, and There Are No Rules

Mississippi has no statewide siting board for utility-scale solar or wind. Permitting for large solar farms is controlled at the county level: boards of supervisors grant conditional use permits, often after a county zoning or planning board makes a recommendation. The PSC certificates generation and approves utility power-purchase arrangements and net-metering rules, but land-use siting is local. The practical consequence is that approval outcomes vary sharply by county, and supervisors can overrule their own zoning boards.

Organized opposition, so far, is limited and localized — this is not the wave of county moratoria seen in states like Ohio. Roughly 10 solar farms were built in 2024 alone, and most approvals have gone through. The flagship fight is Soul City Solar (Apex Clean Energy) in Hinds County — roughly 396 MW on about 3,900 acres, a roughly $700 million investment in the rural area between Bolton and Raymond near the Jackson suburbs. Hinds County supervisors approved the conditional use permit 3-2, overruling their zoning board's recommendation to reject. Residents sued in Hinds County Circuit Court; the permit was upheld in early 2025 and the case is on appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court. Opponents pushed the legislature from January 2025 to adopt statewide solar-siting guidelines, and Raymond's mayor sought a one-year moratorium. The absence of any statewide siting framework is itself the live policy debate.

For a running view of active fights, moratoria, and approvals across the state, see our Mississippi opposition tracker.

The Amazon Effect: $25 Billion Rewrites the Demand Curve

The single biggest force in Mississippi's energy future is not policy — it is Amazon. AWS started with a $10 billion commitment in 2024 that has since grown to a stated $25 billion across the state, the largest capital investment in Mississippi history. The buildout centers on hyperscale campuses in Madison County (an $11B expansion), plus Warren County ($3B) and Hinds County ($1B at a converted Delphi plant), and is projected to create about 2,000 jobs while requiring power roughly equivalent to 700,000 homes.

Crucially for the clean-energy story, Amazon reports investing in five renewable projects totaling 616 MW of carbon-free capacity in Mississippi — Delta Wind among them — and is funding Entergy Mississippi's roughly $300 million “Superpower Mississippi” grid-modernization program, with new solar planned in Hinds, Washington, and Tallahatchie counties. The utilities are moving in parallel: Mississippi Power is already buying about 158 MW of solar with agreements for roughly 370 MW more, while Entergy Mississippi issued an April 2025 RFP for about 250 MW of renewables on top of a previously announced ~1,000 MW EDGE initiative. Six solar projects across Pontotoc, Lowndes, Holmes, Hinds, Jasper, Lee, and Union counties sat on the PSC's September 2025 docket.

The load growth is also reviving nuclear. Driven partly by AI and data-center demand, Entergy is studying a possible second reactor at Grand Gulf. The company holds an NRC early site permit for a new unit that expires in April 2027 and has signaled it will seek a 20-year renewal. That is a telling detail: in a state with no renewable mandate, the clearest signal that demand is exploding is a utility dusting off a decades-old nuclear site permit.

Frequently Asked Questions