As TVA diversifies its power generation, the federal utility will look to the sky for a portion of its energy from the largest solar farm yet built in the Tennessee Valley.
TVA tentatively has approved an agreement with NextEra Energy Resources to buy power for up to 20 years from a bank of solar panels projected to generate 80 megawatts in Lauderdale, Ala. Although TVA declined to reveal the purchase price for the power NextEra expects to generate, a new environmental assessment of the project released last month suggests that the the solar farm will provide an attractive substitute power supply for the nearby Colbert Fossil Plant on on TVA’s Pickwick Reservoir, which is scheduled to shut down next year.
The solar farm, known as the River Bend Solar project, will occupy about 645 acres five miles west of Florence, Ala., and is scheduled to be built over the next year or so, pending TVA approval of the contract.
The facility would tie into an existing 161-kilo-volt transmission line. Because the area in which the proposed transmission line would be built is predominantly cropland, limited clearing would be required.
NextEra Energy Resources, an affiliate company of Florida Power and Light, is one of America’s biggest producers of renewable energy.