January 2012 “Third-Party Financing + Commercial Solar Workshop Jan 25”

Photo of the Month: January 2012

LightWave Solar is creating jobs in Tennessee. Pictured left to right, Kathleen Thomas, Joshua Hagedorn, Elizabeth McPherson and Paul Sutton pose at our expanded Johnson City office. 

Construction Complete on Largest Corporate Solar Investment in Davidson and Williamson Counties

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Solar array construction is now finished at Mallory Station Storage on Nolensville Road in Nashville, the second largest solar energy project in Nashville (see video above). The company installed solar at each of its four locally-owned storage facilities in Nashville, Brentwood, and Franklin, making this the largest corporate investment in solar energy for both Davidson and Williamson Counties.

Mallory Station Storage’s five solar projects were installed just before the end of the year, adding about 2,000 solar panels to Middle Tennessee and a total of 472 kilo-watts of solar energy. These systems will have a great environmental impact that over the next 25 years will offset emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide, equivalent to planting 3,540 acres of trees or taking 2,360 cars off the road.

The project totaled approximately $2 million dollars, and Mallory Station Storage Regional Manager Brett Yocum is confident in the investment. The average payback time on the systems is five years, and over its lifetime, the five- system project will generate over $7M in income, based on the price of conventional electricity that is expected to increase each year.

“Clean energy technology is an investment that we’re glad to be making,” said Yocum. “Solar is a low risk, high-return investment that benefits society both environmentally and economically.”

Mallory Station Storage is able to keep many of the economic benefits local with the growing solar manufacturing base here in Tennessee. System components manufactured in Tennessee include: 1,965 solar panels manufactured at Sharp (Memphis), the glass covering the panels manufactured at AGC Flatglass (Kingsport), wiring and combiner boxes from Shoals Technologies (Portland), and monitoring systems from SPX ArgusON Solar Power Management (Franklin). The five systems are being designed and installed by Tennessee’s LightWave Solar of Antioch, a solar installer that has increased the number of its employees by 30 percent within the last six months, a good reflection of the growth of the solar industry as a whole.

“We are excited to be part of a growth industry that supports our nation’s economic recovery,” said LightWave Solar President Steve Johnson. “Our company illustrates a national trend that is impacting communities like ours across the nation.”  

Solar is in fact one of the fastest growing industries in the entire economy, experiencing 69 percent growth over the last year. This significant growth has given more than 100,000 Americans a job working in the U.S. solar industry, according to the Solar Foundation’s annual jobs census. The growth is exciting, and the Solar Energy Industries Association recently announced that the U.S. solar energy industry has set a record for installations, achieving a 140 percent annual growth in Q3 of 2011, the best quarter yet.

Click here for SEIA’s Q3 2011 solar growth summary and report.