A Republican lawmaker seeks solar momentum for South Carolina

One of the roundtable attendees was state Sen Chauncey "Greg" Gregory, who has sponsored significant legislation in the state to support solar power. A few years ago, Gregory visited his sister in Portland, Oregon, and saw solar panels on hundreds of rooftops. “It seemed ridiculous to me that a state that is cloudy 8 months a year had so much solar energy,” he says, “while South Carolina had so little.” He decided to try and change that. The state’s sunny neighbors - Georgia and North Carolina were making big strides in solar. But as recently as 2012 South Carolina lagged at the bottom of the list, with complicated laws, resistance from power companies, and poor tax incentives for solar energy. Today the state currently has 7 megawatts of solar installed, but plans to go to 765 over the next five years, which will move its rank from 34th to 20th.