Company to add 1,000 MW of solar and other renewable energy; plan draws praise from governor, state’s public service commissioners

The Green Power Option gives residential and business customers in New Orleans the power to match some or all of their electricity usage with clean, renewable energy generated in Louisiana.

Arkansas Power and Light founder Harvey Couch made a deal in 1913 to purchase sawdust – the company’s first fuel source – to burn and power a steam-powered turbine and send power through a 20-mile transmission line to customers in Malvern and Arkadelphia. That was the beginning of what would become Entergy Corporation, an integrated energy company engaged in electric power production, transmission and retail distribution operations across four service territories for 3 million customers. A little more than 10 years later, Mr. Couch’s Sterlington natural gas-powered plant in north Louisiana was placed online in November 1925. As the demand for electricity grew, so did the company’s fleet of power generation resources. Couch built Remmel Dam, the first hydroelectric dam on the Ouachita River, near Hot Springs in 1924. Just upstream in 1931 came Carpenter Dam, and both dams still generate emission-free power today.