The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the signature project from President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s that generates power for 10 million people across seven Southeast states.
It’s a massive energy user for the U.S. government, which means it’s also a potentially huge energy saver as the federal government works to meet President Biden’s goal of removing all fossil fuels from its grids by 2035.
While the TVA is working toward achieving net-zero emissions, it’s currently working toward achieving net-zero by 2050. But a story by Canary Media discusses TVA’s plans to further wean itself off fossil fuels.
The utility’s electricity mix is more than 50 percent carbon-free compared to 60 percent of the U.S., which makes the TVA cleaner than the U.S. in general, with most of that carbon-free energy coming from dammed rivers and nuclear plants. Only 3 percent of its electricity comes from solar and wind resources and none of its plants are electric.
Increased reliance on solar power seems to be on the horizon for TVA, which has 993 megawatts of utility-scale solar operating in its footprint as of June 30, which is measured at about 22 percent less solar capacity than Connecticut, the article states. But the construction of a 35-megawatt solar project 50 miles southeast of Nashville shows TVA is showing signs of solar progress.
A major benefactor of the solar build near Nashville is Vanderbilt University, which is offsetting 70 percent of its carbon emissions from electricity consumption from the solar site.
Dave Lubach is executive editor for the facility market.
