McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. has begun construction on the 53 MW Millington Solar Farm in Millington, Tenn.
The project represents a public-private partnership between Nashville-based Silicon Ranch Corp.; the U.S. Navy; Tennessee Valley Authority; Memphis Light, Gas and Water; and the Millington Industrial Development Board.
The 402-acre, utility-scale solar plant will host 580,000 single-axis photovoltaic panels, representing the largest solar energy project in Tennessee, according to McCarthy. Construction is scheduled to be complete at the end of this year.
The developer, Silicon Ranch, an independent solar power producer, selected McCarthy’s renewable energy team as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor. McCarthy is thus responsible for the design, procurement, construction and commissioning of the facility. Silicon Ranch is funding the installation and will own and operate the array.
McCarthy is seeking to hire local subcontractors and craftsmen to provide the bulk of on-site work for the project’s construction, just as the company has done for all other Silicon Ranch facilities it has built. The facility’s construction is expected to support more than 300 jobs, and McCarthy will provide local workers with on-site training in pile driving, tracker assembly and panel installation.
The U.S. Navy provided a long-term lease of 72 acres of base land at the Naval Support Activity Mid-South to accommodate part of the array, while the remainder of the land was purchased from the Millington Industrial Development Board.
“Our renewable energy team has been working closely with our Southeast operations, and we’ve recently completed or are currently constructing more than 12 solar projects throughout the region, which includes Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia and Georgia,” says Scott Canada, senior vice president of the renewable energy team at McCarthy. “Solar owners like Silicon Ranch understand the value of this infrastructure to local communities, which will provide clean energy for decades to come.”
