Southern utilities are turning to the sun to help meet higher electricity demand with plans to more than double solar power generation by 2027, according to a new study on solar generation in the Southeast.
The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to more than triple solar generation in the next four years and has pledged to develop 10 gigawatts of additional solar generation by 2035. But the public power utility generates less than half as much power from the sun as the average among major utilities in the Southeast.
That kept TVA on the list of “solar blockers” again this year in the seventh annual ranking of major Southeast utilities in their use of solar power by the Knoxville-based environmental group the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
“Despite several utility-scale projects from TVA going into service, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi still have a lot of catching up to do,” Heather Pohnan, senior energy policy manager for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said in a new report on solar in the South. “They all fall far short of other Southeast states in both installed capacity as well as watts per customer solar ratio. Unfortunately, the slow solar growth from TVA and other utilities operating in these states make it difficult to keep pace with the rest of the region.”
The study analyzed both utility-scale solar projects and utility purchases of electricity generated by distributed solar panels by individual customers, cooperatives and local power companies.