MARYVILLE, Tenn. — A Nashville company plans to bring three solar farms to Blount County.
Solar farms are installations of solar panels on parcels of land, and in this case, the panels will provide power for Maryville Electric customers and DENSO.
Silicon Ranch Co-Founder and Chairman Matt Kisber said the company owns the land it is using and recently got approval from Blount County's Planning Commission to build solar panels on 126 acres of land at 3017 Sevierville Road.
Blount County officials also confirmed Silicon Ranch got the go-ahead to move forward with the development.
Kisber said once it's complete, the solar panels in the 3000 block of Sevierville Road, along with an additional project planned in the Maryville area, will provide electricity for about 1,000 homes in the area.
"We will be starting construction on a solar farm there, it will begin construction later this year, and complete construction summer of next year," Kibser said. "And when completed, we will have two solar farms in the area that will provide together close to 9 megawatts of electricity, which is enough to power about 1,000 homes."
Kisber declined to share the exact location of the second additional project and said it will be located in Blount County.
According to Kisber, plans for the additional Maryville-area project will be heading to the planning commission in the future.
The electricity created by the solar panels will go into the power grid and then be used at homes and businesses near the development.
"Electricity is drawn to its closest source of demand," he said. "So most likely the homes and businesses in the general proximity of the solar farms is where the electricity will go."
Power generated at these sites will also be used at DENSO, Kisber said.
The Silicon Ranch project at DENSO is located on its Maryville campus and will power 187 homes each year. Silicon Ranch plans to start constructing the solar panels by the end of this year and it should be operational sometime next year.
About 90 jobs will be created by these projects.
Critics of solar farms cite concerns about safety to wildlife and adverse health effects, however Kisber said people don't have to worry about those things.
"First, solar is a very safe technology, it's been studied and proven that solar farms do not contribute to any type of dangerous or noxious types of emissions," Kisber said. "We build our plants with wildlife fencing, to ensure if there is wildlife in the area, they're able to get through the fencing and not to let the harm to wildlife."
He said at any of the solar farms Silicon Ranch owns the company plants vegetation and uses animals, like sheep, to manage the vegetation.
Silicon Ranch was started in 2011 by former Governor Phil Breseden, former Tennessee Commissioner of Revenue John Farrar and Kisber, who served as the Tennessee Commissioner of Economic Development under Breseden.