Construction of a new 9 MW ac solar farm is underway in Washington County, Tennessee by Silicon Ranch, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and BrightRidge. Martin Solar Farm will be the first project to enter construction under TVA’s new Generation Flexibility Program, a program designed to encourage local power companies to develop new distributed generation facilities. The facility will allow BrightRidge to generate clean energy to lower costs and support community and economic development. Electricity produced from the farm will be provided to area K-12 and higher education systems that are interested in offsetting some of their electricity needs with cleaner energy sources first.
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Silicon Ranch will invest several million dollars in private capital to build the Martin Solar Farm as well as hiring approximately 150 craft workers to install a single-axis tracking system that will make 25,000 bifacial solar panels to follow the sun across its daily arc. It will own and operate the solar farm for the long term which will be the second solar generation facility on the BrightRidge system built in partnership with Silicon Ranch and TVA.
“Under the visionary leadership of its CEO Jeff Dykes and its board of directors, BrightRidge continues to represent the best of public power and is truly at the vanguard of the Flexibility Program here in the Tennessee Valley. Silicon Ranch is honored to expand our partnership with BrightRidge through this landmark project, and we applaud Tennessee Valley Authority for empowering all LPCs to leverage low-cost renewable energy to meet customer needs and recruit new business,” said Silicon Ranch co-founder and chairman, Matt Kisber. “Tennessee Valley Authority is a low-cost carbon reduction leader and takes partners like BrightRidge and Silicon Ranch to help us transition into a cleaner energy future,” said the senior TVA VP, Doug Perry.
