Landowner Resources for Utility-Scale Solar

Tennessee has one statewide law that directly addresses solar development. During the 2022 legislative session, the Tennessee General Assembly established the “Decommissioning Law,” Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-9-207, which imposes requirements on solar power facilities regarding decommissioning obligations and the required removal of solar power facilities upon or prior to the expiration or termination of the solar power facility agreement. The Decommissioning Law includes requirements that must be present in agreements between landowners and owners or operators of solar power facilities entered into on or after June 1, 2022, the effective date of the legislation.

The original Decommissioning Law addressed solar-generating devices or structures at least 10 MW in size. However, effective July 1, 2024, the law was amended to apply to solar-generating devices or structures at least 5 MW in size. “Solar power facilities,” as defined in the Decommissioning Law, do not include solar-generating devices or structures less than 5 megawatts (MW) in size, measured at the point of interconnection; however, parties to a solar power facility agreement may elect to apply the requirements of the Decommissioning Law to smaller structures.

The 2024 legislation also tasks the TDEC Office of Energy Programs (OEP) with the responsibility of receiving and storing solar power facility agreements. Learn more about this process on the Statutory Requirements for Solar Facilities page. 

 The Tennessee Solar Energy Industries Association, TenneSEIA, has a list of Frequently Asked Questions regarding this legislation.

As noted in the report Laws in Order: An Inventory of State Renewable Energy Siting Policies, released by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which examines the diversity of siting and permitting regulations, authorities, and processes for renewable energy across all 50 states and Puerto Rico, siting decisions in Tennessee are made at the local level.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) offers resources on the siting of large-scale renewable energy projects, including solar.

The U.S. DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) also offers information on large-scale solar siting specifically.  

Permitting solar development is treated similarly to permitting for other types of development in Tennessee. A solar construction site will require a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Stormwater Permit, sometimes called a construction general permit, from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Division of Water Resources. The site will also need an electrical permit, which can be purchased through the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance. Additional permitting may be required by county or local municipalities; contact the local code or zoning office to learn more.

Additional requirements will be placed on any project that utilizes federal funding, including requirements pertaining to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), such as a potential need to prepare an Environmental Assessment, which determines whether or not a federal action has the potential to cause significant environmental effects, or an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), if a proposed action is determined to significantly affect the quality of the human environment. The EIS process requires the publishing of a notice of intent and an opportunity for the public to provide input, to be followed by the release of a draft EIS for public comment. As a federal agency, TVA regularly prepares NEPA environmental reviews. An example Environmental Assessment is available from TVA’s Adamsville Solar Project, and the TVA Solar and Battery Programmatic EIS provides an example of the documentation and requirements under the EIS process.  

Licensing

Solar installers are required to have a business license with the State, which would be acquired through the Secretary of State and be registered with the Tennessee Department of Revenue. Additional licensing requirements may exist from the local county or city municipalities.

The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance requires a contractor’s license to complete any job over $25,000. Additional information is available on the Contractors and Home Improvements page, the License Requirements, and Licensing Steps pages. Contractor application documents can be found on the Forms and Documents page. Additionally, information on the various codes can be found on the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy’s Codes Program page. 

Solar Installation Certification

Currently, the State of TN does not require installers to be certified, though it is recommended. The North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP) offers Solar Installation Certification. 

Electrical Code

The current, adopted electrical code for the State is the 2017 National Electrical Code (NEC). Article 110.3(B) of the 2017 NEC states that listed and labeled equipment shall be installed and used in accordance with any instructions included in the listing and labeling. For example, the installation instructions for Generac power cells state that Power cell batteries may be installed in dwelling units in the following locations only:

• Attached garages, separated from dwelling unit habitable spaces in accordance with local building code.
• Detached garages and accessory structures.
• Utility closets and storage or utility spaces.
• Basements.
•  Other locations not categorized as habitable space in a dwelling unit.

In 2016, the Solar Energy Industries Association created the Guide to Land Leases for Solar to assist landowners in understanding the basics of the process of leasing land for solar projects. 

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) released a report in 2023 on Managing Solar Energy Development to Balance Private Property Rights and Customer Protection with the Protection of Land and Communities to address common concerns about solar development in Tennessee. 

Land trusts, such as the Land Trust for Tennessee, work with landowners to create conservation easements that permanently limit land development and subdivision.

The State's Heritage Conservation Trust Fund, with a $30 million appropriation for fiscal year 2023-24, supports public-private partnerships to conserve land for tourism, outdoor recreation, natural and cultural resources, and "working landscapes."

Farmland

U.S. DOE has created the Farmer’s Guide to Going Solar to address questions that farmers may have about solar and agrivoltaics.

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture released the report, Evaluating Potential Land Use of Utility-Scale Photovoltaics (Solar Panels) on Farmland in Tennessee in 2023. The report attempts to quantify the amount of land currently used for utility-scale solar energy production in Tennessee and to project the amount likely to be used under different scenarios for future growth as well as providing information on the extent of farmland being converted to other uses, PV development considerations for agricultural communities, and the potential for collocation of PV power generation and agricultural production, known as agrivoltaics.

The American Farmland Trust provides resources for solar on farmland, including a Farmland Information Center with resources on solar.

The National Agricultural Law Center has resources available on the topic of renewable energy on agricultural lands. A Farmland Owner’s Guide to Solar Leasing provides specific information for Ohio; however, other information about solar leasing in the guide is relevant for farmland owners in any state.

In February 2020, the TVA Board of Directors approved a set of principles to guide local power companies (LPCs) interested in adding locally sourced energy for their customers. Among the principles developed, up to 5% of an LPC’s average energy needs can be met by new distributed energy solutions built in their own service territory. This provides LPCs with the autonomy to build, own, or procure a percentage of their generation rather than sourcing all generation from TVA.

In 2023, TVA adopted the Expanded Generation Flexibility Program, or Flexibility 2.0, which made three major changes. First of all, it will allow multiple LPCs to aggregate the capacity allotted to them into one project. In other words, a single Generation Flexibility project will be permitted to supply power to more than one LPC. This will allow for more efficient economies of scale for Flexibility projects, especially with respect to utilities with smaller energy demands. Secondly, LPCs will be allowed to contract TVA interconnected projects that are off the LPC’s system and outside of its service jurisdiction. This measure has particularly salient implications for land-constrained utilities and municipal utilities that would not otherwise have the necessary available land within their service area for a Flexibility project. Whereas formerly Generation Flexibility projects required that the solar projects be interconnected to the respective LPC’s distribution system, this new measure brings the benefits of Flexibility outlined above to a whole new set of LPCs in the Valley. Lastly, the modified program guidelines will allow over-generation (also known as backfeed) onto the TVA generation system.  This will allow for generation to exceed the substation load, with any over-generation treated by TVA as credit to the benefit of the LPC tied to the project.  View TVA’s Local Power Company Partners and contact the local power company to obtain more information.

A variety of Tennessee Valley Renewable Energy programs are offered by TVA, with an emphasis on solar opportunities. TVA offers dedicated pages about renewable resource opportunities for its Residential, Business, and Large Business and Industry customers.