Solar Systems

Environmental impact analysis completed for Loudon solar power project – cnhinews.com

A solar power project planned for Loudon County would have no significant impacts on considerations such as water quality, floodplains or human health, a government agency has determined.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service made the Finding of No Significant Impact for the Walking Horse Solar Project in March. The project, which would provide a renewable energy source for Loudon County and surrounding areas, is to be built on about 42 acres off Maremont Parkway.

Tennessee Valley Authority paved the way for such a project in 2020, when it announced a flexibility program that allows up to 5 percent of its partner’s average energy needs to be met by new “distributed energy solutions” — independent power systems that provide energy — built in their own service territory. London Utilities currently gets 100 percent of its energy from TVA.

The project is a partnership between Loudon Utilities Board and private contractor Alternus Energy Americas Inc., which took over from the initial contractor, Sunrise Energy Ventures LLC.

The design phase is complete and the to-be-determined onset of construction will drive the completion date, said Aubrey Cagle, director of electric at Loudon Utilities.

“As part of the ongoing strain on the electric grid itself, TVA has been and will continue to raise rates to add capacity to the system as we see this growth in the TVA footprint, especially in Loudon,” Cagle told the News-Herald. “Locking in a very low competitive rate to be able to purchase power from a second source, not just TVA, will allow us to keep our rates low. That’s not to say we won’t have rate increases, but we hope to minimize those as much as possible.”

Cagle said the biggest impact the solar project will have on county residents is through rates.

“We have a 20-plus year agreement to be a fairly low competitive rate and that’s going to put us, when we did the study, it’s going to save the rate payers money by lowering the rate at which we purchase power — so therefore it will lower the rate at which they purchase power from us,” Cagle said.

The location for the solar project was decided in 2022. Plans for the facility include the installation of photovoltaic arrays, inverters, battery storage, an access road and fencing around the site at 1251 Roberson Spring Road in Loudon.

The government agency was required to complete an environmental impact analysis as part of its consideration of a financing assistance request that Alternus plans to submit, according to the report. The analysis found that construction-related emissions will be minor and limited to the construction phase of the project.

“The proposed project is not anticipated to produce emissions other than emissions from a limited number of vehicles that will visit the site to perform periodic maintenance,” the report said. “It is anticipated that emissions from these vehicles will be minor, and these emissions will not exceed de minimis levels for PM 2.5 and 8-hour ozone pollutants.”

The report said about 7.1 acres of trees will be removed on the western and central portions of the site; Cagle said trees have been cleared already.

According to the report, the project would have no adverse effect on resources eligible for, or on, the National Register of Historic Places; is not likely to adversely affect “federally listed threatened and endangered species or designated critical habitat thereof;” would not disproportionately affect minority and/or low-income populations; and would have no significant impact on wetland, land use, aesthetics, transportation or human safety.

No other potential significant impacts resulting from the proposed project have been identified.

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