The state has received final approval to spend $62 million of stimulus money on a solar farm in West Tennessee and a Solar Institute at UT and Oak Ridge National Lab. Governor Phil Bredesen made the announcement Tuesday at his annual economic development conference.
Authorization for the project had been delayed for the last three months. The Department of Energy was concerned about lengthy environmental reviews of the solar farm site in Haywood County and whether the research would go beyond academic demonstrations.
Governor Bredesen says the state has now met the Department of Energy’s requirements without substantially changing the projects. He envisions industrial companies using the solar farm for their own testing.
“When a Sharp, for example, wants to try out and get experience with their thin film panels, this is a great place to put some up to connect them to the power grid, really start to get some operating experience with those. I also see it as an educational center.”
Plans call for a visitor center that’s a pull off from I-40. Bredesen says he expects the solar farm will become a field trip destination for students.
Adjacent to the Haywood County solar farm are 1,500 acres that have been chosen as a “megasite” to attract a large industrial tenant. The state building commission delayed funding for the site preparation last week because of concerns over who would oversee the $40 million project. Governor Bredesen said Tuesday the delays are reasonable but he still expects the development will go ahead.
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