ADVISORY: Press Conference Thursday As Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Heads Towards Worst Solar Year Since 2011
ADVISORY: Press Conference Thursday As Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Heads Towards Worst Solar Year Since 2011
Solar Choice Advocates To Speak out in Protest Over Lack of Progress and Deliberate Slow Downs
What: Telephone Press Conference with Tennesseans for Solar Choice Coalition Members
When: Summer Solstice, Thursday, June 21, 2018 11am ET 10am CT
Call Info: 727-258-5789 PIN: 97609
Knoxville, Tenn. – TVA is on track to deploy less solar than they have since 2011, making it clear that all three of TVA’s solar programs (Green Power Providers for residential and small businesses, Distributed Solar Solutions for larger community scale solar in partnership with Local Power Companies, and large scale solar through a Request For Proposals) are delayed, mismanaged, or completely broken. Frustrated by this dismal rate of solar installations in Tennessee, while other states in the region continue to move forward with clean, affordable, solar energy, members of the Tennesseans for Solar Choice coalition are hosting a telephone press conference on Thursday, June 21 at 11am ET.
On what is usually a celebration of sunshine on the longest day of the year, this Summer Solstice, solar advocates, small businesses, and other Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) consumers, are protesting what appears to be deliberate mismanagement and slowing of TVA’s own solar programs. Despite being halfway through the year, year-to-date applications for residential and small business solar are down 73 percent from where they were a year ago, and despite some hopeful hints at progress, such as the recent announcement that TVA is working with Facebook in Huntsville, AL, it appears that no utility scale projects (excluding those already under construction) are expected to begin installation in the next year or two.
Press Conference to Include:
Gil Hough, Executive Director of TenneSEIA (Tennessee Solar Energy Industries Association)
Chris Calhoun, owner of The Tap House and The Brew Market in Chattanooga and member of Tennessee Small Business Alliance
Lenda Sherrell, State Director of Tennessee Small Business Alliance
Elder Jimmie Garland, Vice President Middle Tennessee for the Tennessee State Conference NAACP
Dr. Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
###
Tennesseans for Solar Choice is a diverse and multi-partisan coalition, working to remove the market barriers and enable the fair expansion of solar power to benefit all Tennesseans. Learn more at https://www.tnsolarchoice.org/.