Carter makes a stand for solar with power project in his hometown

Plains, Georgia

THE solar panels - 3,852 of them - shimmered above 10 acres (4 hectares) of Jimmy Carter's soil where peanuts and soya beans used to grow. The panels moved almost imperceptibly with the sun. And they could power more than half this small town, from which Mr Carter rose from obscurity to the presidency.

Nearly 38 years after Mr Carter installed solar panels at the White House, only to see them removed during Ronald Reagan's administration, the former president is leasing part of his family's farmland for a project that is both cutting edge and homespun.