Tennessee Utility Powerhouse Undercuts Solar

TVA Proposes to Axe Customer Solar Program Maggie Shober and Bryan Jacob, November 12, 2019 (Southern Alliance for Clean Energy)

“…The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has released proposed changes to its 2007 Green Power Providers (GPP) incentive for residential solar which compensates businesses and homeowners] for every kilowatt hour generated…[A]t the end of 2019, the GPP program will be closed to new applications…[Solar projects for large corporate customers like Facebook and Google is the] only significant solar in TVA’s pipeline for the next five years…[Its recent long-term resource plan] misled the public about how much solar TVA actually intends to include on its system…[TVA claims GPP is underutilized, but TVA’s data] shows a clear correlation between the number of residents that install solar and the amount those residents are paid for their generation. As TVA has decreased that amount, the number of residents installing solar has dropped...

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…[P]rogram participation increased in 2019 as TVA held the generation credit steady…[TVA claims] that customer-installed solar shifts utility costs onto customers without solar. This claim has been disproved in numerous studies…TVA’s proposal presents a false choice between large-scale solar and the distributed solar that customers install on homes and businesses…[Both] offer energy (MWh) and capacity (MW) value to the system – and both provide environmental benefits…[and a combination] is necessary if TVA wants to further reduce its carbon emissions more than the current trajectory of 6% in the next 20 years...The alternatives TVA considered to replace the GPP are entirely insufficient. Customers deserve a solar program that compensates them equitably for the power they generate and supply to their local utility…” click here for more

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