TVA puts solar in its place, just outside Memphis

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Where’s the best place for solar energy? It may not seem obvious, but Memphis is one of the smartest places to put solar energy in the Southeast. Just this week, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) showed how it is following this kind of smart siting by signing a a 53 megawatt (MW) solar facility power purchase agreement (PPA) with Nashville-based renewable energy provider, Silicon Ranch Corporation, who will construct what is soon-to-be Tennessee’s largest solar array in Millington, just north of Memphis.

What’s so smart about putting solar in the western part of TVA’s service territory? It turns out that on hot summer days, TVA can rely on the sun shining on West Tennessee and Northern Mississippi late into the day – producing solar energy just when air conditioners across the entire Tennessee Valley most needs this clean energy to keep people cool.

The 53 MW project will be located at the Naval Support Activity Mid-South base in Millington. 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, Tenn., 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.

TVA puts solar in its place, just outside Memphis

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