Puryear, Tenn.–The 6.75 megawatt solar installation at Paris Solar Farm – Puryear is on pace to be completed by early December.
Paris Utility Authority CEO Terry Wimberley said the Paris Board of Public Utilities “will realize a savings of almost $300,000 per year by purchasing the solar generated power.”
The Paris Board of Public Utilities, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Silicon Ranch—along with county, city of Paris nd Puryear officials—held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new solar facility being built in Puryear in April of this year.
The 80-acre solar facility will generate 6.75 megawatt (MWAC), enough energy to power approximately1,000 homes annually.
At the groundbreaking, Wimberley said it was expected to begin delivering energy to the Paris BPU electric grid in December and that is still the timeline.
Wimberley said from the construction site, “We’re excited about this. It’s a positive thing for our community. We’re going to be buying power cheaper than we do from TVA today.”
The facility is part of TVA’s Generation Flexibility Program, which is designed to encourage local power companies to develop distributed generation facilities and provide local solutions to the renewable needs of customers, while also improving the carbon position of the region. Through Generation Flexibility, TVA enables local power companies to generate up to 5% of their total energy load to meet the renewable energy goals of their customers, attract sustainability-focused businesses to their communities, and solve individual challenges for their customers or distribution systems. Because economic development is an important part of Paris BPU’s mission, flexible solutions like the one offered by TVA add another tool to the toolbox in the company’s conversations with industry partners.