Permit: Large Solar Farm Planned At Agricenter - Memphis Daily News

Memphis Daily News October 10, 2011

A 1-megawatt solar farm could be installed at Agricenter International, according to a $3.5 million building permit application just filed with the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement.

The permit application lists Agricenter International’s address, 7777 Walnut Grove Road, and states it is for “installation of a ground-mounted 1-MW solar farm on the property of the Agricenter in Shelby County.”

Though no contractor is listed, a phone number on the permit application is that of LightWave Solar Electric LLC, which has offices in Antioch and Johnson City, Tenn.

Calls to Agricenter International and LightWave Solar Electric were not immediately returned.

A 1-MW solar array can produce 1.5 million kilowatt hours a year – enough to power 200 homes, according to Natural Energy Group of Knoxville. NEG unveiled a 1-MW solar farm in Jackson, Tenn., in January – the largest solar energy project in state history and, along with a 1-MW solar farm opened in Georgia around the same time, one of the two largest solar arrays ever built in the Tennessee Valley Association region, according to the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. TVA’s region covers nearly all of

Tennessee and portions of six other states.

The Agricenter project would match the enormity of those projects.

Opened in 2006 in Nashville, LightWave Solar Electric designs and installs turn-key solar electric – photovoltaic – systems throughout the state, according to the company’s website.

It is a member of the Tennessee Renewable Energy & Economic Development Council and an affiliate of the American Solar Energy Society and the U.S. Green Building Council’s Middle Tennessee chapter, among other organizations.

In addition, LightWave holds an unlimited state electrical license and the most North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners certifications in the state, according to the company’s site.

Agricenter International, which opened in 1985 as the first “International Agricultural Market Center,” bills itself as the world’s largest urban farm and research test facility.