Tennessee Becomes A Green Giant
Tennessee is making bold moves to position itself as a leader in clean energy, including a proposed Solar Institute, big investment in biomass technology and tax incentives for companies in the renewable-energy supply chain.
The state already has landed some impressive players. Hemlock Semiconductor will invest $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion on a silicon manufacturing operation in Clarksville as part of a joint venture between majority owner Dow Corning Corp. and two Japanese companies.
German company Wacker Chemie announced in February 2009 plans for a $1 billion silicon plant in Bradley County. The companies are the top two producers of polycrystalline silicon for the solar industry.
By the end of 2009, the state hopes to have the Tennessee Solar Institute in place to support the growing industry on the research side.
“Energy and solar are innovation based,” says Matt Kisber, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development commissioner. “We cannot sit back and thrive on existing technologies.
These investments are being talked about as national security and energy independence issues, but they are really about economic development and job creation.”
As the U.S. Department of Energy’s largest science and energy lab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory works on improving basic materials for application in solar, auto, battery and other sectors to boost efficiency.
“We have a strong incentive to work with industry and come up with solutions,” says Dr. Thom Mason, ORNL director. “Changes in our energy landscape become real only once they are in the hands of the private sector.”
Gov. Phil Bredesen has proposed the Volunteer State Solar Initiative, a solar-energy and economic-development program that would use up to $62.5 million in federal stimulus money to advance job creation, education, research and renewable-power production in Tennessee.
In addition to the solar institute, the initiative includes plans for the West Tennessee Solar Farm, a five-megawatt, 20-acre power generation facility at Haywood County’s industrial megasite.
In biofuels, Tennessee has invested more than $70 million, including a pilot refinery to help jumpstart the industry. The first product from the plant in the Niles Ferry Industrial Park may be ready by the end of 2009, says Timothy Rials, research and development director of the University of Tennessee’s Office of Bioenergy Programs.
The project is a joint venture with UT and DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol LLC. Focusing on switchgrass, a crop that can grow well on marginal lands, the process uses enzymes and microbes to break the plant cellulose into sugars and turn the sugars into ethanol.
The first 723 acres were harvested in fall 2008. One acre can produce up to nine tons of switchgrass, and the working formula is 100 gallons of cellulosic ethanol per ton.
“The real key here is about eliminating the conversation around food vs. fuel, because it all involves marginal lands,” Rials says.
Shoals Technologies focuses on wire and integration components for solar installation, and the company is growing so quickly it needed a second site. Fast. Shoals moved into an existing building in Portland in Robertson County and already is rolling product off the lines. It’s also moving its headquarters to Gallatin.
“Everyone was receptive to us. The economic development people (local and state) did a great job,” says John Maros, Shoals vice president.
