Steam rises from the cooling tower of the single operating reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Spring City, Tenn. in this 2007 photo.
Photo by TVAIt’s disappointing to hear that the Tennessee Valley Authority has unplugged its TVA Green Power Providers program, the solar initiative that helped the utility build solar power up to a whopping 1 percent of its electric generation mix.
Solar power was just too successful, and people signed on to invest their own money in it so readily that the utility set capacity limits on the solar segment of its renewable energy programs for 2013. That “capacity” was met within the first four months of the year. And the program may not be reopened.
TVA officials say they don’t want to “subsidize” solar power.
The utility — the one that now has a $2 billion cost overrun for a second reactor at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant — says the $5 million shortfall in the solar program is too much.
Here’s how TVA’s solar program worked: