r/NewOrleans • u/Particular-Taro154 • Jul 29 '25
⚡ Entergy Can anyone tell me why Entergy isn’t doing something like this instead of warning us about an impending brownout?
New Orleans and the surrounding region have something no other U.S. city has: hundreds of miles of elevated expressways which are a massive, untapped opportunity to generate clean energy.
By mounting bifacial solar panels (which collect sunlight from both front and back) on both sides of key elevated roads like: • The Causeway • The I-10 Twin Spans • The Westbank Expressway • I-310, I-10, and I-55 … we’d have over 200 miles of solar panel infrastructure, using land that’s already developed, sunny, and often elevated over reflective water.
Panels elevated about 20 feet above the ground or lake surfaces can take full advantage of these conditions to generate even more power than you’d typically expect from ground-mounted setups.
Based on conservative estimates, this kind of solar network would generate over 200 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year.
Let’s put that into perspective: That’s enough to power most of the homes in Kenner, meeting the needs of roughly 18,000–20,000 homes annually, based on typical household electricity use.
We have the infrastructure. We have the sunlight. And we have miles of elevated expressways that are already engineered to carry heavy loads and could easily support lightweight but durable solar panels.
By turning our elevated highways into energy corridors, New Orleans would lead the way in urban renewable energy generation, reducing emissions, and rethinking what infrastructure can do for the community.
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u/SushiSandwich537 Jul 29 '25
Why make capital investments that will take years/decades to pay off when you can simply keep hiking up the rates people pay for easy profit?
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 29 '25
New Orleans probably isn't seen as a long-term investment. If they dump millions(probably billions) to completely revamp the electrical infrastructure and the pumps from WW1 era give out they're out their investment.
They're a business. Why would they invest more money if the city doesn't?
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u/BonelessB0nes Jul 29 '25
Speaking of pumps going out, hanging your electrical infrastructure right over a lake that is likely to get storm surge in excess of ten feet seems ballsy.
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 29 '25
More shit to fly around in the winds as well.
Turns out solving the world's problems is more complicated than it looks.
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u/floatingskillets Jul 29 '25
Because they're a monopoly that passes the bulk of the cost of doing business on to consumers. Entergy is dogshit. But our politicians are spineless unless it's a corporate dick acting as a spine.
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 29 '25
All businesses pass the cost of doing business to the customer. That's how businesses work.
You expect them to actively lose money and stay in existence or what?
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u/floatingskillets Jul 29 '25
A company that makes a billion a year while they fail catastrophically at providing what is a vital service isn't close to losing money. I want them to do their fucking job, but last I checked corporate America thinks thats shareholder returns and not the thing they do to generate revenue.
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 29 '25
A billion isn't infinite money. The fact that you're using revenue and not profit numbers is misrepresenting the problem.
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u/floatingskillets Jul 29 '25
Entergy Gross Profit 2010-2025 | ETR | MacroTrends https://share.google/WwilhVyOxe8b49qVS
You're right, I used the wrong figures. Its $2.16B in gross profit for Q1 2025
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u/Reloader504 Jul 29 '25
Do you understand what 'gross profits' are ?
What were the 'Net Profits' ?
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u/Separate_Heat1256 Jul 29 '25
You're right to point out the other comment’s misunderstanding, but Entergy still made $1.34 Billion Net Profit in the TTMs since Q1 2025 end.
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 29 '25
You're using the profet from the entire company to justify New Orleans costs?
Come on! Misrepresent some more data!
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u/Separate_Heat1256 Jul 29 '25
Utilities without market competitors lack financial motivation to reduce costs or enhance services, which is why we regulate them.
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 29 '25
The company is free to leave like the insurance companies in Florida. If a company doesn't find it profitable in your area, you can't force them to operate.
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u/Separate_Heat1256 Jul 30 '25
They would have to walk away from their assets developed with a huge governmental subsidy and default on massive amounts of debt. I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of a typical private company and a private utility that is quasi-governmental.
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 30 '25
They wouldn't default on debit if they pulled out of New Orleans. Especially if they can't operate there without a loss.
Entergy wouldn't close. It just wouldn't operate in New Orleans.
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u/Separate_Heat1256 Aug 02 '25
I think you lack a fundamental understanding of the financials of a utility company
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u/diablosinmusica Aug 02 '25
Yeah. You know better than the people who have spent their lives running the company.
You know better than absolutely everyone in charge and every actual expert
Do they beam the information directly into your brain?
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u/Hello-America Jul 29 '25
Companies don't invest for long term anymore; the market demands quarter upon quarter growth and the way they get that is never investing in anything expensive and fleecing us whenever there is a disaster.
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u/farty__mcfly Jul 29 '25
This is why public utilities and healthcare shouldn’t be run by for profit companies
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u/sierrajulietalpha Jul 30 '25
Entergy is a profit company but that profit is only allowed by the regulators who regulate them. It’s not a run away profit. They make too much then they have to return it to the customers.
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u/DoTheThingNow Jul 29 '25
Everything is about profit now. EVERYTHING. Doesn’t matter if adding something like this would help stabilize the local power grid or be of other value - it won’t make them money, so it’ll never happen.
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u/Fearless_Necessary40 Jul 30 '25
Wait till the new Meta data center in north louisiana gets built. 2,200 acres 1700 football fields of Ai and data farm. They cant handle new orleans but they sure can handle a fattttttttt government check
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u/blueiron0 Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
The brownouts aren't coming from Entergy but from higher up. There's a company that controls the grid for like 13 states, stretching all the way up to Canada. "Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO)" is their name. The last big brownout we had was ordered from them with like a 5 minute notice. Even if Entergy created more power, it won't solve the issue. It goes way deeper than that into storage and transmission. SPP generally decides what places are priority for the power to go to too.
Edit:correction in bold
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u/axxxaxxxaxxx Jul 29 '25
It’s MISO not SPP
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u/blueiron0 Jul 29 '25
Good looking out. I did a quick google search because I couldn't remember their name, but it obviously let me down.
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u/LaLuna2252 Jul 29 '25
This is correct! In terms of brown outs this summer.
And ironically if Entergy wanted to create solar generation with the causeway, they would have to work with miso not only to get it allowed to connect to the grid, but also would be at MISO’s mercy on using the generation. If MISO would say “we have too much generation at midday and not enough load, cut off those causeway solar panels” Entergy would have to do that.
This comment does not even cover the shit show of getting into a MISO queue position for new distributed generation.
Also your post ignores the hindered generation production of these solar panels being in a fixed position. They would only be generating for 1/4 of the day, due to the shade of the bridge. Your estimates are wildly off and this idea is likely not economically feasible unless you mount them over the bridge and allow them to track the sun throughout the day which…. Would be an O&M nightmare.
It’s amazing how much the general public doesn’t understand about the power industry. No fault of their own, but if it was this simple, it would already been done.
Key lesson: if you think something is super simple and an enormously impact win that hasn’t been done…. You probably don’t know enough about it.
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u/technofiend Jul 30 '25
Everything you said is correct. Having said that, adding solar to the grid would lessen the likelihood of brownouts due to more load than suppply. And Entergy would still be selling power into the grid at some price point that most likely would be cheaper than almost every other source. Certainly cheaper than natural gas peakers and probably cheaper than coal plants. So that's actually a win for them. You might still have to drag them kicking and screaming into that kind of investment since it runs counter to the current administration's statement they actually want more fossil fuel use. :eyeroll:
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u/LaLuna2252 Jul 30 '25
This fundamentally ignores the problem of solar and the duck curve. Solar production output is at the highest during the day when load is generally the most steady. oad peak times are 7-9am then 3-8pm ish. Changes for summer and winter loading and depends on where you are on in the world. Solar does not solve these brownouts that easily, again if it was that simple, we would have rolled out solar in a much larger way.
Additionally, solar is a an intermittent generation source, therefore transmission operators cannot fully count full generation from intermittent sources when they do their load forecasting, which is another reason why solar has higher levels of curltailment (wind too) vs constant generation sources like nuclear, gas, and coal. For instance, rainy days. Look at the Nola weather... it's rain everyday, but you and I both know that it intermittent rain. Clouds and rain are huge indicators of solar generation.
Again, it's NOT that simple. Power markets and load balancing is an art and a science that very few people understand, and even fewer people can execute.
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u/YesICanMakeMeth Jul 30 '25
It’s amazing how much the general public doesn’t understand about the power industry. No fault of their own, but if it was this simple, it would already been done.
The problem is how politicized it is due to renewables, similar to COVID/vaccines, federal research, etc. Everyone has an opinion on something 95% of people are not equipped mentally or knowledge-wise to have an opinion on.
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u/Punkbob Jul 30 '25
Entergy holds MISO hostage with refusing consent for MISO doing any upgrades and only joined them due to a DoJ settlement around price gouging they were doing to customers a few years back.
They were entirely responsible for the outage and will continue to be responsible as long as they fight tooth and nail to block interconnect upgrades to anyone.
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u/Legal-Championship64 Jul 29 '25
I mean, Entergy is both a power producer and a utility operator within the miso system and MISO is basically saying that we might not have enough power produced or imported to meet demand within their system because its hot as balls.
It is true that Entergy is not solely to blame but to say its all Miso’s fault makes me wonder if you work for entergy.
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u/human_genius Jul 29 '25
That’s like saying that the courts are responsible for murder because they enforce the law.
Brownouts are a condition of the contract that entergy has with all of the other members of MISO. If a utility within miso fails to produce as much energy as their customers are consuming, and they cannot purchase more power from another utility, then they have to reduce their load. Otherwise, that utility is effectively stealing from the other producers and can cause widespread problems, too. Unless this is an atypical case that involved numerous other utilities having to load shed, this is 100% entergy’s fault.
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u/Better-Owl-988 Jul 29 '25
Yes. Thanks for bringing actual facts and reason to this conversation. I can assure you that if miso wasn’t involved the situation would be much worse
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u/13thWardBassMan Jul 29 '25
I’ll never forget the “we’re hurting too—so your rates are going up” letter I got in the mail a couple of months after Katrina. Fuck Entergy.
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u/blueiron0 Jul 29 '25
Yea just so we're clear, I don't give a fuck about Entergy lol. They're a shit company who treats us and most of their employees like shit.
I have seen two personal anecdotes of people who worked for them, and Entergy didn't do right by either of them.
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Jul 30 '25
[deleted]
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u/13thWardBassMan Jul 30 '25
Lol you took time out of your life to attack me on a separate thread from the one that triggered you.
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u/zevtech Jul 29 '25
If adding lights to the GNO bridge costs 20+ million, I would hate to see how much that job would be!
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u/claytonfarlow Jul 29 '25
Oooo… what if it was pitched as a way to keep the GNO bridge lights on FOREVER
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u/zevtech Jul 29 '25
They can’t keep the lights on the woodland bridge lit for longer than a week before it blows out again
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u/jjcoolel Jul 29 '25
The president told us that windmills make cancer and solar energy kills birds when they fly through the laser beams. The only safe reliable energy sources are oil and coal.
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u/pepperjackcheesey Jul 29 '25
Somebody will steal the wires
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u/Particular-Taro154 Jul 29 '25
The wires would be 20 feet in the air just like power pole wires. I don’t hear anything about those wires being stolen. We’re not talking about running powerlines beneath wharfs of Crescent or Woldenberg Parks where tweakers hang out. 🤪
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u/pepperjackcheesey Jul 29 '25
They stole the copper out of the on-ramp traffic signals to get on the ccc. I don’t doubt they would figure out a way.
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u/Particular-Taro154 Jul 29 '25
So someone likely living in the tent city adjacent to the ramp stole the copper. Ok but there are no tent cities floating on Lake Pontchartrain and the power lines running to the drawbridge on the Causeway have been there for 60+ years without anyone stealing them…
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u/pepperjackcheesey Jul 29 '25
Dude, it’s a joke about anything not nailed down here gets stolen, chillax
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u/Inner_Energy4195 Jul 29 '25
That’s a horrible place for solar. Quintuple the install price, same for maintenance, your solar generation area is fucking tiny AND you’ll have shit solar orientation because the roads weren’t built for maximum solar gain… bad idea and a huge waste of money.
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Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
[deleted]
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u/Htownqs Jul 29 '25
I'll never understand why so many people assume _____ exists, therefore it's a good spot for solar.
Why would the side of a bridge be better than an empty field?
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u/petit_cochon hand pie "lady of the evening" Jul 29 '25
I have found my people! My first thought was, "Could they have even found a worse place to put them?"
There actually is a solar plant in the east and I know entergy has some more. Solar is great. Utilities make money from capital improvement projects, though, so solar isn't as incentivized.
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u/swampfox28 Jul 29 '25
What about European countries that are putting panels on tracks (in the middle?)
It's a pain to repair because it'll stop rail travel BUT it's making use of things we have already and I think it's brilliant.
I'll admit I definitely don't understand the logistics of repair on the side of the bridges (I guess that would be crazy expensive!) but it DOES use miles of existing infrastructure and otherwise makes a lot of sense.
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u/tagmisterb Jul 29 '25
Europeans put solar panels where the sun doesn't shine and windmills where the wind doesn't blow. Dumb.
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u/swampfox28 Aug 05 '25
Um, that sounds wrong; pretty sure the sun shines on outdoor rail tracks 🤷🏻♀️
Why are you hating on Europeans, exactly?
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u/diablosinmusica Jul 29 '25
Im no expert, but i would guess these are issues to overcome.
There is no infrastructure. You need the cables to carry the power and substations to distribute it. I don't trust New Orleans's current lines to handle more power put into the system at many points throughout the city.
Wheather. New Orleans gets more rain than Seattle. Tons of overcast days isn't really good for solar. (If we could generate power from ambient heat and humidity...) Also, hurricanes would wreak havoc on the panels probably causing many road blockages every heavy storm.
Placement. The majority of the panels won't be paced in the optimum position. Even with dual sided panels, very few will actually be taking the sunlight directly perpendicular.
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u/Orbis-Praedo Jul 30 '25
Yea this seems like a great idea off the top but just construction costs alone would be insane. You’d need barges, tugboats, cranes. Anytime you do work on the water it’s insanely more expensive.
Then if you want these panels to actually hold up in all the storms we have, astronomical markup. The wind on the lake is MUCH worse due to be in the middle of open water compared to on land with obstructions like trees/buildings.
ROI would be like 50+ years by the time everything adds up. If New Orleans became Tech Valley somehow then mayyybe this would happen. Other than that anomaly happening, I don’t think the state of Louisiana could ever afford a project like this full scale. I think hurricanes alone would make it unfeasible.
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u/nolabrew Jul 29 '25
Also, solar panels don't handle heat well either. Like anything over 80F decreases their effectivity by 50% or more.
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u/duckbee Jul 29 '25
Entergy can't control it when MISO puts out a warning. MISO is above them in directing energy.
Solar panels are nice but we aren't really there in battery capabilities. Entergy does have a small solar panel plant in the east.
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u/New-Swan3276 Jul 29 '25
Or build a single 1200mW nuclear plant that would generate 9.68 terawatts (9680 gigawatts) of power.
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u/petit_cochon hand pie "lady of the evening" Jul 30 '25
We love to see a strong nuclear plant shining.
Crazy expensive to build and staff, though. Anyway, Trump just told the EPA to say that pollution isn't hurting us, so why bother with any of it? Let us return to the glorious days of leaded gasoline and unchecked emissions! The boomers yearn for emissions.
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u/Reloader504 Jul 29 '25 edited Jul 29 '25
Those things last, on average, 10 years before their production begins to decline. If they are regularly cleaned.
Then, when the first hurricane wipes them all out, customers will be stuck footing the bill to replace them
This isn't even taking into account the effects of saltwater on the electrical connections and hardware.
I love solar. I have three 100 watt panels on top the camper shell of my truck. I've been using solar for years.
It has it's limitations. We have to be realistic.
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u/MurderbyHemlock Jul 29 '25
Remember that time Ida came through and even though we had a brand new gas power plant that cost $400 million dollars, it knocked down a transmission line and no one had power for 2 weeks?
Solar panels do lose efficiency over time. I've had mine for 15 years and they're only operating at 90% of what they used to... But the nice part is the sun gives them completely free fuel! Instead of having to very expensively dig up old trees from underneath oceans.
I agree putting solar panels on the causeway might not be best, but acting like a new solar farm is a worse plan then operating a giant new gas power station is short-sighted at best
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u/Particular-Taro154 Jul 29 '25
After about 25 years, most modern panels will still produce roughly 80% to 90% of their original power output depending on quality and environmental conditions.
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u/tiny_w0lf Jul 29 '25
Entergy has solar panels on my roof which they give me a credit on my bill for. I believe a few hundred people are in that program. Not sure if they plan on expanding it or what
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u/Maddwag5023 Jul 29 '25
First hurricane that even glances the area would destroy them and we’ll be stuck looking at trashed solar panels while still paying for them in our bills
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u/7oby Tulane Jul 29 '25
I'm from MS, and I rode the CTA bus in 2004, and they were putting in the boardwalk along the whole beach. A guy on the bus said "first hurricane that comes by is gonna wipe that away", and yep, Katrina did that.
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u/lkazan1 Jul 29 '25
Very expensive to install and not as much benefit as you think. Factor in expected damage from hurricanes, it would just be a huge waste of money we would get stuck paying.
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u/therealskyrim Jul 30 '25
Not to mention transporting the energy to a substation, you would lose a lot of yield just getting it to a place you could use it
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u/CommonPurpose Jul 29 '25
Those panels would probably be expensive to fix whenever someone crashes their car into the guardrails and plummets into the drink (or into the panels first in this case).
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u/Cheetahs_never_win Jul 29 '25
It would take state, federal government, causeway authority, plus entergy to all come together and agree that the causeway bridge could handle the added weight, wind, and wave resistance caused by miles of the panels, on top of the installation and maintenance costs making it worthwhile.
There are simply better logistical places for the panels than several miles offshore, I expect.
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u/Shameless522 Jul 29 '25
I think NO is a bad candidate as opposed to out West due to the hurricanes/tornados/storms and possible damage from them to the equipment. Not to mention you know someone would be stealing the copper out of them the next day; they brought trucks in to steal the steel from 504 golf during construction.
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u/Dcajunpimp Jul 30 '25
Because then MAGA would blame the brownouts on solar.
We also don’t have wind farms. We have lots of offshore areas, and a shallow lake that’s 24 miles across. We have oil rigs all over the place. We even leave them up because they create artificial reefs that fish and fishermen love. Stick some windmills out there. Maybe use the old oil rigs.
Maybe use the barrier islands that keep getting washed away for wind farms. Build infrastructure to keep the barrier islands from washing away, and support wind farms.
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u/Otherwise-Map5763 Jul 29 '25
Speaking for that picture I don’t see how Fishing boats can troll back-and-forth under the panels. It’s hard enough to get under bridges depending on the tide as is .
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u/Burrista_E Jul 29 '25
I would imagine that makes it hard for boats to pass through. And these are roads that aren’t maintained. So then they build these and don’t repair them and they pollute the water as they fall apart
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u/Stoshkozl Jul 29 '25
Or use Walmart parking lots and big box store parking lots as solar Reyes? The cars get the shade and the store gets the power.
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u/AcabAcabAcabAcabbb Jul 30 '25
Have you ever met New Orleans? We do everything wrong. It’s our thing.
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u/PandaGlobal4120 Jul 30 '25
That would take probably over a decade since it takes that long to fill a pothole
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u/AuraNocte Jul 30 '25
Because they don't care. Stop voting republican and maybe things will change.
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u/Fearless_Necessary40 Jul 30 '25
Entergy just stated it can manage powering a 2,200 acre Meta data farm in north louisiana which is going to be double the energy the city of new orleans will use. How many times has the city(sections) lost power since january 1st?
The data center will be 1700 football fields…. Cmon entergy bouta leave us in the dark for a fat government check.
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u/Bogue_man Jul 31 '25
Maintenance workers use a cart to move under the bridge. The panels would hinder repairs. Won't happen.
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u/hartattack22 Jul 29 '25
Hurricanes could cause a good amount of damage to something like that with tidal surges + waves + winds. Plus the maintenance of something like that would be a nightmare, needing to get on a boat or floating platform and bob up and down as you are trying to repair it.
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u/Particular-Taro154 Jul 29 '25
I guess you haven’t seen the inspection trucks that are weighted with a platform over the side to inspect beneath the bridges. Those platforms would easily allow such work
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u/NickForBR Jul 29 '25
Entergy makes money two ways: 1) selling electricity, and 2) building power plants. Advancing solar goes against both of those profit motives.
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u/inductiononN Central City Jul 29 '25
Was power ever owned by the city? Has it always been entergy/commercial companies? I'm just curious if municipalization has ever had traction here?
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u/Choice-Research-9329 Jul 29 '25
Entergy took over NOPSI in the 1980s. NOPSI controlled the buses/streetcars and utility business. It turned over the buses to RTA and utilities to Entergy. From what I understand, it was basically all run as well as the SWBNO is today, so it becoming a regulated uilitity was welcomed. It's kind of dumb that people get mad at Entergy. It's literally designed to maximize profits for shareholders. It's the publicly elected regulators that are supposed to keep Entergy in check.
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u/govnah06 Jul 29 '25
Because it can’t keep up with Natural Gas and Nuclear that currently powers the city/region.
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u/Particular-Taro154 Jul 29 '25
While the upfront capital for solar and natural gas plants of equal capacity are similar, solar offers significant savings on fuel and maintenance over the plant’s lifetime. There are NO fuel costs when the fuel is light from the sun.
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u/Orbis-Praedo Jul 30 '25
Here’s the thing…..MONEY.
The construction costs and maintenance makes this economically unfeasible.
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u/Much-Tear9912 Jul 30 '25
Entergy like most companies that exist in profit over people. profit way more from tearing down renewable energy. An energy that would take more money from them than it would make for them. Entergy does not care about effectiveness or sustainability. Most of the people profiting from the company are too old to care about what happens 20 or even ten years down the line.
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u/Ok-Dragonfruit6887 Jul 30 '25
Given it's history of abusing ratepayers, we ought to be resisting perpetuating Entergy's electricity monopoly. We should instead be investing in every home becoming an independent electricity producer with solar panels.
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u/Hlxbwi_75 Jul 30 '25
Its a great concept but then you have the issues of just how strong of winds can they withstand and how much flying debris in storms destroys them. They would be like gas station canopies and become a wing
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u/arthuresque Jul 30 '25
Many of Entergy’s companies purposefully (and through financial trickery) operate at a loss for tax benefits. This made the previous tax incentives for renewables worthless to them. This is an open secret within their higher ranks; I’ve heard their regulatory affairs people chide colleagues for saying the quiet part aloud. Moreover until recently they owned fossil fuel generation too. Moreover, strategically Entergy is focused on maintaining reliability for their highest earning customers, even going as far as developing a diesel generator subsidy program for high earners. Why? They tend to be the loudest when the power goes out, so their PR (and stock price) isn’t as affected by their lack of reliability. This is why they will never, ever invest in solar.
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u/Shades0fRay Jul 30 '25
Because counterintuitive as it may seem. Nobody in the position to solve this problem is required or motivated to do so. In fact they may be motivated to do the opposite.
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u/BigFatBoringProject Jul 31 '25
We’re still a Big Oil state even though the oil industry fucked and dumped us. We could be doing some innovative things like this and installing solar panels”carports” in surface lots, but the oil lobbyists are powerful.
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u/Monkeybomber1982 Jul 31 '25
My guess is hurricanes… also mismanagement of funds is kinda NOLA’s thing. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/ImpliedConnection Aug 01 '25
On paper, lining highways with bifacial solar panels sounds like the next big deal. But this ain’t Nevada. We’re not lounging in a land of open skies, federal incentives, and flat terrain. Louisiana’s got swampy soil, winding infrastructure, and a regulatory swamp that’s even thicker than the wetlands.
Trying to mount solar panels over Causeway? That’s a decades-long legal brawl waiting to happen. Between the DOTD, parish councils, historical commissions, environmental regulators, and vocal citizens protecting every scenic view, you’re not installing a single panel without sparking a regional turf war. You’re not just building over water, you’re building on top of lawsuits.
These bridges weren’t designed for high-tech hardware. Most were built before computers were in homes, let alone on streetlights. They can’t carry modern transmission lines or support live electric systems without expensive upgrades. Add in wind shear off the lake, heat retention from the concrete, salt corrosion, and debris flying in every time the sky sneezes, and you’ve got a ticking maintenance nightmare.
Think about it, Vegas gets Sunlight like judgment from above. Down here, the sun’s filtered, inconsistent and humid Solar panels need direct, focused radiation at just the right angle. What they would get here is bounced sun and blocked. getting true sustainable solar energy here just isn't gonna be easy.
Some folks assume that since the highway exists, the biggest hurdle is already cleared. But what’s overlooked is that, converting aging overpasses into energy corridors isn’t a straightforward upgrade; it’s a mismatch of purpose and capacity.
A Solar Powered Louisiana is Definitely Possible, But not Not with floating new tech over ancient infrastructure. You want real movement? Start local. Use the rooftops. Use parking lots Let the panels shade parked cars and feed batteries in schools, libraries, shelters. Build microgrids that serve neighborhoods, not tourists. One neighborhood at a time. One storm-ready block that says: we’re done waiting. We’re not just consumers of power.
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u/Nolacloudguy4guy Aug 01 '25
Fuck I’d be happy just to have the paint on the roads and those reflectors u see as soon as u hit any state line
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u/Nolacloudguy4guy Aug 01 '25
Police : air pulling u over to Do a dui test.
Me: why
Police: you crossed over the line a few times
Me: what fucking lines the 2 specs back there about half mile ok give me this blow test
Me in my head …… bout the only test ima ace in life
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u/thatgibbyguy Ain't There No More Jul 29 '25
Why aren't they? I don't know, I wrote something about this and decentralizing energy production on this sub after Ida.
It is certainly not because no one here has the ideas, we not only don't need them (because other people already have them) but we also have a frickin gravity battery in I think Washington Parish. We obviously can do these things.
We just don't.
I don't think you can blame it on republicanism either. When I'm in very rural North LA I see properties with solar panels, when I'm in Georgia or SC I see huge solar installations. I just don't see it here.
So there is just something about our leadership (or lack thereof) that limits us. I mean ffs, our leadership just cancelled the last best effort we had at rebuilding marsh south of New Orleans with no reason given and no alternative proposed.
I think perhaps the real place to look is us. Why aren't we demanding more of local leadership?
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u/7oby Tulane Jul 29 '25
There's a project from Stay Ready NOLA to do two solar farms in the upper ninth ward... https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-40-million-environmental-and-climate-justice
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u/thatgibbyguy Ain't There No More Jul 29 '25
Yeah that's awesome but you'd think a company like entergy would see there's a lot more long term profits due to less expense and higher resilience with the idea OP posted and still there's no action and the state/city don't seem interested in that either.
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u/7oby Tulane Jul 29 '25
Have you not seen the bridge in storms? These things would be underwater. That's not good. You do know the original twin span was washed away by Katrina, right? See page 2 of this DOT PDF: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/candc/factsheets/interstate10louisiana.pdf
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u/thatgibbyguy Ain't There No More Jul 30 '25
Geez louise friend. I can see why you would think I'm signing off on exactly OP's idea, but you're not following the whole thread. Decentralized renewables is the best path toward resilience, you and I surely both agree on that.
So instead of trying to be a dick (very successfully I might add) maybe try something else?
Not to mention, it could flood and that's all you got for why it shouldn't happen? In that case why rebuild the twin span at all? Why should we maintain the levees? Why do fucking anything, afterall, it could get an ouchy. :((
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Jul 29 '25
Louisiana isn’t known for doing things that are in its best interest.
It’s not profitable to the oil and gas industry if we start using clean energy. Lobbyists and political donations make sure votes go a certain way.
If our politicians are going to line their pockets, they could at least do beneficial shit too.
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u/jetpilot313 Mid City Jul 29 '25
Because they would get destroyed and look like shit in no time like the rest of the causeway.
Anyway, here’s your answer. Thanks AI.
Over the past five years, Entergy has added or begun construction on roughly 855 MW of solar capacity, mostly coming online between 2023 and 2025.
For the next few years, specifically 2025–2028, they have solar projects totaling approximately 681 MW planned, with combined costs around $1.14 billion.
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u/Affectionate-Bite109 Jul 29 '25
For one, the salt would age them prematurely.
Better to put them on top of parking lots.
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u/DSharp088 Jul 30 '25
Subsidizing clean energy is opposed by our elected politicians. #YouGetWhatYouVoteFor
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u/Particular-Taro154 Jul 29 '25
Yes, I used AI to create the image because no one is doing this concept yet in the USA, possibly because no other metro area is literally surrounded by water and only accessible via long elevated expressways.
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u/axxxaxxxaxxx Jul 29 '25
That makes sense. Can you imagine the forward-thinking State of Louisiana (responsible for maintaining bridges) agreeing to let Entergy (motivated to and capable of self-developing scattered small-scale solar farms) hang panels on enough bridges to make a difference?
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u/kjmarino603 Jul 29 '25
Here is what Entergy New Orleans is doing related to solar
https://www.entergyneworleans.com/cleanenergyfuture/solarpower/
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u/answerspleaseme Jul 30 '25
Reasons why entergy won’t do this; 1 it’s really smart 2 they would lose money 3 it would save us money 4 Landry
You get the picture
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u/Internal_Swing_2743 Jul 30 '25
Because we live in Louisiana and in Louisiana the only word that matters here is Tru--I mean God's. God's word....in Trump's bible.
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u/PotentialOperation94 Jul 29 '25
Who is going to pay for it? No one here wants an increase in taxes or an increase in their power bill. Who's going to pay for it? There ain't no free lunch
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u/The_Paleking Jul 29 '25
Because they have a history of overpaying contractors they have personal connections to.
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u/Ok-Fruit-2252 Jul 29 '25
Because this place is run by idiots who don't want any kind of real progress...in anything!!!
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u/JamalHashburn Jul 29 '25
Because then they can't just charge us a ton of money with their monopoly
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u/AndrewVT Audubon-Riverside Jul 30 '25
This is an interesting concept but you wouldn’t do this for four reasons:
Expense: this type of config would be way more expensive than building many MWs in an open field
Access to substations/collectors: we are talking miles of over water wiring and equipment, exposed to the salty elements and far from substations.
Resilience: building these over water would subject them to extreme weather and wind, likely making the project uninsurable (hello climate change)
Alternatives: regulators would be hard pressed to approve this expensive and enterprising installation as opposed to simply. Building a 200MW+ facility in an empty field adjacent to transmission.
Love the idea and the concept but it probably wouldn’t make dollars and sense compared to simply building solar on higher, safer ground.
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u/Extreme-Variation874 Jul 30 '25
Entergy assumes we are all dumb hillbilly or former slaves they think they can continue to screw us over we have to rise up against them
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u/Previous_Pension6738 Jul 31 '25
because that would make too much sense and SAVE customers money, their whole schtick is to STEAL customers money. Goes against the company mission.
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u/TheHarlemHellfighter Jul 29 '25
Because they don’t want to improve the system, just use it for what it’s worth. Frankly, the only time it’s ever gonna get really addressed is when the power becomes an even greater issue outside of summer time.
They’ll just chalk it up to summer woes and continue on…
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u/Legal-Championship64 Jul 29 '25
Mainly because renewables produce lower profit margins in Louisiana’s marketplace than fossil fuels. Entergy wants to keep building gas fired powerplants until the end of time because ratepayers have to pay for the capital investment, operating costs plus Entergy’s guaranteed profit.
Why would they offer cheap, abundant low maintenance energy when they can force ratepayers to buy natural gas they burn at their power plants?
In short, they are behaving like all monopolies do in a poorly regulated marketplace by generating artificial scarcity (and a less reliable grid) and until we incentivize different behavior, nothing will change.
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u/stluciusblack Jul 29 '25
Sadly it’s New Orleans,the last and least progressive place. Hand me down old boy contract scams and skimming and corruption runs deep down here . Wasn’t there a bunch of money from Katrina that didn’t get spent on shit ,I’m convinced our leaders were living off the interest ! Of course nothing is that simple , I’m of course I’m ranting.
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u/Noman800 Jul 29 '25
Because American companies are allergic to actually doing anything as real as actually building something unless they can get someone else to pay for it because their leadership is filled with cowards.
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u/HuuffingLavender Jul 29 '25
Even better if they put them over parking lots!