GA group helps turn unused roadsides into solar fields

Along I-85 in West Georgia, previously vacant land now hosts 2,600 solar panels generating one megawatt of electricity, enough to power about 100 homes. (Photo credit: Emily Jones)

This coverage is made possible through a partnership with WABE and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.

When Harriet Anderson Langford and Allie Kelly drive the stretch of I-85 in West Georgia known as the Ray C. Anderson Memorial Highway, they see plenty of their own handiwork to admire.

The highway is named for Langford’s dad, Ray Anderson, the founder of carpet manufacturer Interface and an advocate for sustainability. The nonprofit made in his honor, called the Ray, works to make the road more sustainable, with pollinator-friendly wildflowers on the roadside, longer-lasting rubberized pavement, and at one exit, solar panels.