SACE Applauds TVA’s 53-MW Solar Facility PPA Award
Clean Energy advocates praise announcement of Tennessee’s largest solar array at West Tennessee naval base
Contact: Jennifer Rennicks, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, 865-235-1448, jennifer@cleanenergy.org
Millington, TN. – Earlier this week, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) awarded a 53 megawatt (MW) solar facility power purchase agreement (PPA) to Nashville-based renewable energy provider, Silicon Ranch Corporation, to build what will soon be Tennessee’s largest solar array. The project will be located at the Naval Support Activity Mid-South base in Millington, Tennessee, just north of Memphis. The solar array will provide clean, affordable energy to TVA customers over the next 20 years, generating enough energy to power 7,500 homes. The new array will be more than 10 times the size of the state’s current largest array located on I-40 near Stanton, TN, and will consist of 580,000 solar panels.
This project highlights the partnership of advances in technology, local economics, and the continuously lowering cost of solar. Construction on the project will begin once transmission facilities have been built and will result in an estimated 300-400 jobs. The project will use single-axis tracking solar technology that will allow the panels to rotate throughout the day, following the arch of direct sunlight, making the panels highly efficient.
In response to this recent announcement, Dr. Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy made this statement:
“The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) applauds the announcement of Tennessee’s largest solar project as a significant step towards increased deployment of clean, affordable solar energy in the Tennessee Valley. SACE has identified West Tennessee as the prime location for high efficiency, high performing solar power and has advocated for use of more advanced technologies, like single-axis tracking solar panels. TVA is beginning to recognize the value that solar brings to their energy infrastructure and ratepayers alike, and SACE is hopeful that we will continue to see more projects like this awarded throughout our Southeastern region.”
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Founded in 1985, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible energy choices that create global warming solutions and ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. Learn more at www.cleanenergy.org