Industry group set up for solar

Oct 05 - News Sentinel

As solar expands its footprint in Tennessee, a new industry group is organizing to make sure the renewable technology continues on a growth curve in the state.

Known as the Tennessee Solar Energy Industries Association, or TenneSEIA, the group has 22 member commitments, ranging from large manufacturers like Sharp and Hemlock Semiconductor to local installers.

Although several local organizations already exist, local solar companies felt the need to set up an industry-exclusive group, said Gil Milear-Hough, who is serving as the interim president of TenneSEIA until the group convenes to elect permanent officers in November. The group held a kickoff meeting in Nashville last month and will become an official chapter of the National Solar Energy Association.

"Most of the organizations out there that promote solar ... do so in a more generic way," said Hough. "The industry speaking for itself and knowing its own needs -- it was felt to be a need."

Hough saw the need for such an industry organization when he promoted state legislation that would have exempted solar technology from sales tax. "The economy was doing pretty good, and there were only a couple solar installations (in the state)," he said. "I thought it was a relatively warm and fuzzy piece of legislation."

But strip mining also was a hot topic in Nashville that year, and Hough said coal interests defeated the measure.

"At first it had pretty good support in the Legislature," he said. "I think they saw it as, while we're here let's make sure nothing else competes with our legislation and our agenda."

These days, solar has entered the mainstream local economy -- "there's far more jobs created now with solar than with coal," Hough said -- and it's important to keep solar-related issues on the radar both in state government and at TVA, which provides the mechanism for delivering that power in Tennessee, he said.

"If we want to take advantage of the opportunities we've started, the solar industry is going to have to have a voice with the legislature and with the governor and with TVA," Hough said.

Although still in the formative stages, Hough anticipates the group's first objectives will be to work with TVA in setting up an incentive program aimed at encouraging larger solar installations in the state. The agency's Generation Partners program pays for power produced by smaller photovoltaic arrays, but in recent months TVA has been reevaluating rates for systems between 200 kilowatts up to five megawatts -- or enough to power 700-800 homes.

The solar industry is also concerned that TVA's long-term planning process, known as the Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, does not adequately consider the potential for renewable sources as part of its generation capabilities, Hough said.

"If they (TVA) think they can't depend on solar," he said, "they're going to put their money behind other solutions."

As for state-oriented issues, Hough said the group would likely be focused on winning the new governor over to continuing the development of the state's solar industry. That shouldn't be too hard in the case of candidate and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, who is familiar with the issues as Knoxville is one of the Department of Energy's Solar America cities, Hough said.

Still, he said, "he's going to have a lot of people pushing different initiatives."

Larisa Brass is a regular contributor to

the News Sentinel.