The program is available to residential consumers, as well as to business and industrial customers wanting to buy environmentally friendly power. The other distributors participating in the program are Bowling Green Municipal Utilities, City of Oxford Electric Department, EPB of Chattanooga, Gibson Electric Membership Corp., Huntsville Utilities, Knoxville Utilities Board, Nashville Electric Service, Newport Utilities Board, Northeast Mississippi Electric Power, Powell Valley Electric Cooperative and Sevier County Electric System. Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., has joined the Green Power Switch program with the dedication of a 240-cell solar array. The solar panels will generate about 1,200 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month to serve Tennessee Valley consumers. The panels are on top of a tram stop that provides cover from rain and sun for the visitors in the Dollywood parking lot.
Plans call for more solar panels to be installed later at the theme park.
The solar array at Dollywood is the program's second solar-generating facility. The first to go online was the site at the Cumberland Science Museum in Nashville. Tenn. The turbines, which are expected to begin operation this fall, will generate about 2 megawatts of electricity. A facility using landfill gases to produce 6 megawatts of electricity also is in the works. The Chattanooga Office Complex has been named an Energy Star Building by the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.