Construction is set to begin on a 9.5 megawatt, $30 million solar park adjacent to Chattanooga’s Volkswagen factory. The solar park is said to be Tennessee’s largest and will supply a large portion of power to VW plant. The park is also estimated to provide up to 12.5 percent of the 2 million-square-foot plant’s power.

Silicon Ranch Corporation, in partnership with Phoenix Solar, will construct and operate the plant. VW’s executive vice president of finance and information technology, Patrik Mayer, said Phoenix Solar and Silicon Ranch Corporation offered the best proposal of several reviewed by VW. Mayer noted that similar-sized solar parks cost about $30 million, and VW plans to pay Silicon Ranch Corporation a fixed price per kilowatt hour to manage it.

The power generated by the solar park will go to directly to the VW plant as opposed to the EPB or TVA grids. The Chattanooga solar park will also be the largest within the Volkswagen Group, which has about 60 plants worldwide.

FULL STORY: Times Free Press