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Solar power in Tennessee is capable of producing much of the state's electricity; however, the industry remains in early stages in the state. With 129 MW of
SEIA, accessed June 4, 2016 In 2012, Tennessee's largest solar installation was the 5 MW West Tennessee Solar Farm. In 2013,
Tennessee
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Solar power installations in Tennessee have a relatively high climate impact, because almost 25% of the state's electrical generation (as of 2021) comes from
Incentives and Policies
{{Energy in the USA Energy in Tennessee
Solar power in Tennessee is capable of producing much of the state's electricity; however, the industry remains in early stages in the state. With 129 MW of solar power
Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovolta ...
in 2015, Tennessee ranked 20th among states for installed solar capacity.Tennessee fact sheetSEIA, accessed June 4, 2016 In 2012, Tennessee's largest solar installation was the 5 MW West Tennessee Solar Farm. In 2013,
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a global brand post-W ...
opened an 8 MW solar farm at its assembly plant in Chattanooga. The largest solar installations in Tennessee in 2014 were the 20 MW Selmer and 20 MW Mulberry Solar Farms in McNairy County.
In 2015, White Farms, a grain farm in rural Carroll County, installed a 49.725 kW solar array.
A 68.5 MW(DC) (53 MW(AC)) solar farm near Millington became the state's largest solar installation in 2019.
Rooftop solar
Photovoltaic panel
Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially u ...
s installed on rooftops is estimated to be capable of producing 23% of all electricity used in Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, with 16,000 MW of solar panels.
Federal law requires net metering upon request, but Tennessee is one of only four states without established policy, meaning that it needs to be negotiated with the utility. A more practical approach is to assume net metering by each utility. Net metering is simply an accounting procedure, and the only requirement is a bi-directional electric meter. Most meters are bi-directional. It is more practical for utilities to discover net metering instead of requiring registration and reporting, just as there is no registration or reporting requirement in connecting an air conditioner, which is instead discovered by utilities. Best practices call for perpetual roll over of kilowatt credits instead of converting to a monetary value.
A 2012 estimate suggests that a typical 5 kW system will pay for itself in about 14 years, and thereafter generate a net savings of $16,622 over the 25 year life of the system./ref>
Climate impact
Solar power installations in Tennessee have a relatively high climate impact, because almost 25% of the state's electrical generation (as of 2021) comes from coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
.
A Nashville-based startup, Clearloop, is targeting solar installations based on three criteria: “Where are the sunniest places? Where’s the grid
Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to:
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* Grid reference, used to define a location on a map
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the dirtiest? And where can a dollar invested in infrastructure go the longest way?” The company's first installation, in Jackson, has capacity to power about 200 homes. Clearloop plans to build additional installations based on investment by companies which want to transition to 100% renewable electricity or offset corporate emissions.
Statistics
See also
* Wind power in Tennessee *Solar power in the United States
Solar power includes solar farms as well as local distributed generation, mostly on rooftops and increasingly from community solar arrays. In 2021, utility-scale solar power generated 115 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 2.8% of electricity i ...
*Renewable energy in the United States
According to preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration, renewable energy accounted for about 12.6% of total primary energy consumption and about 19.8% of the domestically produced electricity in the United States in 202 ...
References
External links
Incentives and Policies
{{Energy in the USA Energy in Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...