'A unique application': TVA takes $216M first step toward turning coal ash sites into solar farms
The Tennessee Valley Authority took its first step toward turning its coal ash landfills into solar energy farms on Thursday.
At its quarterly meeting, the TVA board unanimously approved $216 million in funding for a pilot project aimed at building a 100-megawatt, 309-acre solar farm on top of a coal ash landfill at the Shawnee Fossil Plant in Paducah, Kentucky.
The project is the first step in TVA's efforts to convert sites contaminated by the legacy of coal into productive sources of renewable energy. If TVA can make the solar installation at Shawnee work and deploy similar efforts across its system, it anticipates adding 1,000 megawatts of solar energy capacity. That is equal to nearly all of TVA's current solar capacity and enough to power roughly 600,000 homes.
But the eventual impact of the project’s potential is not limited to TVA or coal ash sites, CEO Jeff Lyash said. If TVA can make the process work, it can eventually be used across all sorts of landfills to help generate carbon-free power nationwide and beyond.
“We think this is a unique application that would not only benefit us and our local power companies but could benefit others as well,” Lyash said.
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Board approval of the project comes as TVA has committed to more solar projects while facing criticism from environmental groups for lagging behind its peers on solar adoption. This summer, TVA started soliciting proposals for 5,000 megawatts of clean energy. It has also announced plans to add an additional 10,000 megawatts of solar energy to its system by 2035.
While no timeline has been set for the Shawnee project, TVA officials told the board they hope to get it online within two years, pending regulatory and environmental approvals.
Environmental concerns make the project challenging. Coal ash is a toxic waste product from the burning of coal. In 2008, a TVA dike failure spilled more than a billion gallons of coal ash sludge at the Kingston Fossil Plant. TVA has spent more than $1 billion on cleanup and compensation.
Because of the dangers coal ash poses to humans and the environment, federal regulations require that it be sealed. Building solar farms on top of the capped coal ash landfills requires installing thousands of solar panels without compromising the integrity of the lining that keeps the ash out of the surrounding environment.
TVA also wants to build the solar farm in a way that would allow them to harvest the coal ash if a beneficial way to use the ash is developed in the future.
"It's a highly engineered activity," Lyash said.
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By building solar farms at its coal sites, TVA can use existing transmission infrastructure to distribute the energy the farms create. It can also eliminate one of the major costs of building solar farms: acquiring the land.
Land costs are why solar farms are rarely built in urban areas, where land is more expensive. Instead, they are often built in rural areas, where solar developers can sometimes compete with agricultural interests for the best land. Building on landfills solves that problem.
“I think the land use issue gets more difficult over time,” Lyash said. “So we have been working to identify alternatives like this.”
Like many utilities, TVA aspires to reach carbon-neutral by 2050, which will require retiring its remaining five coal plants. TVA has said it plans on retiring its coal fleet by 2035.
Josh Keefe is an investigative reporter with The Tennessean. You can reach him via email at jkeefe@tennessean.com or follow him on Twitter at @thejoshkeefe.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TVA intends to build solar farm on top of coal ash
