In a bid to support local, sustainable energy, Huntsville Utilities will be acquire power from someone besides TVA for the first time ever

On Wednesday morning, Huntsville Utilities, Toyota Alabama and Toyota Tsusho America, Inc. (TAI) announced a new project that will harness solar energy to power 70% of Huntsville’s Toyota manufacturing plant.

The three entities have entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA) which will be used to build and support the 168-acre, $49 million solar project.

Located in the North Huntsville Industrial park, the 30-megawatt solar-generated will look to generate 62,000 megawatt hours annually and reduce approximately 22,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year. This is enough solar energy to power over 5,000 homes in the US.

The city of Huntsville is leasing 30 acres to Mazda Toyota Manufacturing (MTM) for use in the solar project, Mayor Tommy Battle said. According to him, it’s a development that has been in the works for almost three years.

“We’re leasing the land because it does an environmental good for the community,” Battle said. “And it makes this community a stronger community.”

This project is one of several that will help the automaker achieve its goal of maintaining complete carbon neutrality in its operations by 2035.

“Toyota is taking a transparent, science-based approach to address climate change,” said Jason Puckett, president of Toyota Alabama. “By relying on the sun to power our operations, we will reduce our carbon footprint and create a model of environmental stewardship in North Alabama. We want to create a model of environmental stewardship and manufacturing can positively impact the world around us,” Puckett said.

The solar facility will begin generating energy by summer of 2024 while the project’s development is handled by Toyota Tsusho’s Energy Infrastructure Solutions team, who will be the owners of the facility.

“Finding smart, creative solutions to climate change is an urgent and global focus for our company,” said Toyota Tsusho president and CEO, Naoyuki Hata. “Using our know-how to bring projects like this to life aligns with our goal of creating positive impacts in local communities, while also helping create pathways to a sustainable future globally.”

The PPA with Huntsville Utilities and Toyota marks a new era of clean energy production for the municipal utility company. Through its long-term agreement with TVA, this facility will be the largest flexibility project in the region, representing a new kind of relationship between TVA’s and local power companies across the Tennessee River Valley.

One thing that makes the project unique is that Huntsville Utilities will be purchasing power from anyone other than TVA for the very first time according to Huntsville Utilities CEO Wes Kelley.

In an interview with HBJ, Kelley elaborated that the agreement is only possible because of a new deal that Huntsville Utilities entered into with TVA a few years ago. According to Kelley, the deal allows Huntsville Utilities to acquire 5% of their energy needs locally to support environmentally sustainable projects.

This deal will allocate about 40% of the the 5% allowed, around 2.0% -2.5% of their total energy needs. Huntsville Utilities will be purchasing this power at a rate less than the current rate payed to TVA.

“TVA’s willingness to get more creative and get more flexible has allowed this to happen so that we can partner with our key industry to make this a success,” Kelley said. “In the past, every electron that flowed onto the Huntsville system came from TVA, but they recognize that there’s local needs and local opportunities so they wanted to give us the flexibility to harness those opportunities.”

Huntsville Utilities will be building a new $2.6 million electric substation to receive this power along with a 46,000 volt transmission line that will be brought into the distribution system.

“Due to our collaboration with Toyota, TAI and TVA, we are helping shape the future for communities and companies in the region and beyond,” Kelley added. “We are both proud and thankful to be a part of this project with Toyota.”

TVA was also represented by their Southeast regional vice president, Jared Mitchum.

“After 90 years of generating clean power for the Valley, over the last 20 years, we have started bringing solar in a pretty big way with over 4,000 mostly small installations to the tune of couple billion dollars worth of investment,” said Mitchum in his remarks.“Partners like this one with Huntsville Utilities is flexible and allows them to meet local needs and local power generation in an infrastructure that’s good for business at the local level.”

HBJ was also able to interview Mitchum, about the partnership where he explained that this is the largest “possibility project” to date, which refers to the specific projects allowing TVA customers to partner with local energy sources and the first such project in their south region.

Since Toyota Alabama started production in 2003, the plant has expanded six times and represents a $1.5 billion investment. In 2022, Toyota Alabama’s 1,900 employees assembled more than 665,000 engines and hybrid engines. The plant supplies engines for popular Toyota vehicles such as the Tundra, Corolla Cross and Sienna.