The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a federally owned electric utility cooperation[1], issued a request on July 12, 2022, for up to 5 GW of carbon-free energy that must be operational by 2029, representing one of the largest clean energy procurement requests in the U.S.[2] TVA will consider solar, onshore or offshore wind, hydropower, geothermal, biomass, nuclear, renewable gas, battery energy storage systems, and hybrid combinations. While the power would serve TVA’s seven-state territory in the Southeast, clean energy power could come from outside the region. The deadline for proposals is October 19, 2022. TVA said it will announce selected projects in the spring of 2023. TVA aims to reduce carbon from 2005 levels by 70% by 2030, 80% by 2035, and net zero by 2050. To achieve this goal, the agency is planning to bring an additional 10,000 MW of solar energy capacity online by 2035. Currently, TVA has about 35 GW to 38 GW of capacity daily through its own generation and power purchases from other places. In 2021, TVA got more than half of its electricity from carbon-free resources like hydroelectric and nuclear.

[1] TVA covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia.

[2] https://www.tva.com/newsroom/press-releases/tva-issues-one-of-the-nation-s-largest-requests-for-carbon-free-energy