Inside TVA’s clean energy strategy

As a leader in advancing an American-made, clean energy future, TVA is pursuing strategies that maintain affordability, add needed grid capacity and support energy security.

Expanding renewables

In FY 2024, more than half of TVA’s power came from carbon-free sources.

TVA has retired or announced the retirement of 86% of its coal fleet. The enterprise is focusing on renewables – particularly solar – for its energy portfolio, aiming for 10,000 megawatts of solar by 2035. About 4,000 megawatts of solar are currently in operation or development.

About half of TVA’s solar capacity comes from its Green Invest program, connecting large customers with large-scale solar developers.

In May 2024, the first of three solar plus battery storage projects with Origis Energy came online in Lowndes County, Mississippi. When all projects are complete, the complex is expected to include 1.5 million solar panels with a total capacity of 550 megawatts – enough to power about 126,000 homes.

Powering clean jobs

Over the past five years, TVA has helped recruit capital investments projected to total around $46 billion, which is expected to help create almost 100,000 new jobs.

Many of these jobs are in industries that drive a clean energy economy, such as Accelera, Daimler Truck and Paccar in Marshall County, Mississippi, and First Solar in Lawrence County, Alabama, along with many others.

Energy efficiency and demand response

TVA is investing more than $1.5 billion in energy efficiency and demand management programs, estimated to offset nearly 30% of new load growth through 2033.

The enterprise has helped businesses and residents reduce energy usage to eliminate more than 577,000 tons of carbon, equivalent to the carbon emissions from powering about 63,000 homes for a year.

Driving innovation

TVA is investing in innovative methods of generating and delivering carbon-free energy, including exploration of a small modular reactor at its Clinch River site and the first TVA-owned battery storage facility in Vonore, Tennessee. TVA is also making strategic transmission investments that bring renewables onto the grid.

To meet future energy needs, TVA is exploring emerging technologies such as long-duration energy storage, carbon capture and low-carbon fuels such as hydrogen.

Accelerating EV adoption

TVA is helping to drive innovation and build partnerships, with a goal of having 200,000 EVs on Valley-region roads by 2028 and more than 1 million EVs by 2035.

Partnering with local power companies and state and local governments, TVA has deployed 90 Fast Chargers at 39 sites, with more to come in FY 2025. So far, the Fast Charge Network has avoided 585 tons of carbon and supported 2.5 million miles of EV driving.

PHOTO AT TOP OF PAGE: First Solar’s $1.1 billion North Alabama facility is expected to create more than 700 jobs and bring new opportunities for American solar manufacturing.