Blount solar facility wins planning approval

A 126-acre Blount-based solar farm is closer to breaking ground after clearing a procedural hurdle last week.

Silicon Ranch, a solar-focused company headquartered in Nashville, got permission from the Blount County Planning Commission Thursday, May 23, to move forward with plans to build a plant just outside Maryville’s city limits. The plant is one of three projects planned for the Blount County area and is bordered to the northwest by the Northfield neighborhood by Sevierville Road. Maryville Seventh-day Adventist Church borders the property to the south.

Fencing and a plant buffer will separate the solar farm from residents. Beyond the visuals, residents and passersby likely won’t notice a change to the local soundscape, according to past reporting from The Daily Times; the solar panels are not designed to give off loud sounds.

Partnerships

The 126-acre project comes as one part of a partnership among Silicon Ranch, DENSO and the Maryville Electric Department.

Other Silicon Ranch plants are planned or in progress on DENSO Manufacturing Inc. property in the city and on Mint Road by Old Niles Ferry Road in western Blount County.

Across the three locations — amounting to about 180 acres in total — Silicon Ranch staff expect to generate 10.25 megawatts of power, an amount that could help reduce energy costs for Maryville Electric Department customers. All three plants — which include DENSO-specific facilities — could be operational by summer 2025. Plans for the Mint Road solar farm, like the Sevierville Road project, will require approval from Blount planning.

The projects sit underneath the umbrella of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Generation Flexibility program, which permits generating up to 5% of total power loads from other sources.

Power sources permissible within the program structure include solar, wind and natural gas.

Silicon Ranch currently plans another project for Tennessee, Director of Corporate Communications Rob Hamilton told the newspaper Wednesday, May 29. That project will be part of TVA’s Green Invest program. A more specific location for the project is not yet public.

Buffers

In an email to the newspaper, Hamilton described the company’s commitment to Blount County: “As the long-term owner of these projects, Silicon Ranch will be investing millions of dollars into the community through the construction and operation of these projects, and as a landowner will pay new tax revenues that are additive to the local tax base because we require minimal community services in return.”

The Sevierville Road project’s next steps will include additional permitting and drafting a construction schedule. But before moving dirt on the solar farm, project’s leads said, they also invested time with the Northfield neighbors to ensure that the project is minimally disruptive.

In May 2023, Silicon Ranch staff hosted a community meeting for members of the neighborhood to ask questions and register concerns about the project. Noise and the site’s visibility to residents were key issues, according to past reporting from the newspaper, which cited an attendee as saying residents’ comments were not generally negative.

Planning commission members also raised visibility issues with the project before approving a site plan for it Thursday.

Madeline Brennan, a project developer for Silicon Ranch, said then that the planned natural buffer between the farm and residents would be made up of American Holly trees. The natural buffer would stretch across the northern part of the property, she said.

“We took into consideration the distance between those residences to our panels and that structure. The northern section of the property will be sitting much closer to those homes, which is why we presented the (buffer) on that northern section. On the southern section of the property, our panels will sit anywhere between 600 to 700 feet from that property boundary, creating (...) a significant setback there,” she said.