BusinessTN

Tennessee’s budding solar identity took another step forward this month.

A new one megawatt (1 MW) solar power system, the largest in Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Authority region, came online August 12 for the City of Knoxville.

The system is comprised of 4,608 solar modules. It is anticipated that the solar power array will generate 1,198,920 kWh of solar energy annually for the Knoxville Utility Board grid. That represents the equivalent energy to power more than 120 average-sized American homes.

The $5 million project was developed, designed and constructed by Natural Energy Group, a Knoxville firm that was founded and funded by a group of East Tennessee investors led by Mike Malicote. The company’s mission is to help cities, airports and government organizations get into large-scale solar power generation.

The project was accomplished in conjunction with fellow Knoxville firm, Efficient Energy of Tennessee (EETN), Natural Energy Group’s integrator arm based in Powell. EETN will also maintain the facility.

The solar modules were made by Sharp in the company’s Memphis plant. Sharp pioneered the solar power industry in Tennessee when it converted an old-style color television plant to solar-cell module production in 2003.

All together, the design, construction and maintenance of the system helped create dozens of new “clean tech” jobs in Knoxville, in addition to the factory jobs that Sharp keeps creating at its Memphis plant.

“We are extremely proud to have completed and interconnected this signature Tennessee photovoltaic project, the largest in the TVA region,” noted Robbie Thomas, president of EETN and an investor in Natural Energy Group. “Each organization went above and beyond to create a green energy solution that will set the standard for others across the country.”

An existing building at the site will be converted to an education center that will include displays of real-time production data, design and installation information, mounting displays and other educational items for public viewing.

Tennessee has been focused on creating jobs in the solar sector in recent years. Gov. Phil Bredesen's Volunteer State Solar Initiative seeks to create even more jobs in the renewable-power production industry. The $62.5 million economic development program creates the Tennessee Solar Institute at the campuses of UT-Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It also includes a 20-acre solar power generation farm in West Tennessee.

At the same time, private industry continues to invest heavily in Tennessee's solar industry. The Hemlock plant under construction in Clarksville and the proposed Wacker Chemie plant in Cleveland each will make semiconductors of the type used in the solar cells Sharp makes.