By Anne Paine, THE TENNESSEAN

Large solar, wind and other renewable energy projects are temporarily back on the table in TVA's Generation Partners program that pays a premium for green power production.

The public power producer announced Tuesday that individuals and companies that were in discussions to build systems of up to one megawatt will be included in the program.

TVA plans to process all pending agreements by Aug. 31.

The response from contractors and companies has been equally as enthusiastic as it was grim when the Tennessee Valley Authority suddenly put a moratorium in place for the program in mid-June, lifting it only for smaller systems a week later.

"We're ecstatic," said Harvey Abouelata, with Efficient Energy of Tennessee. "Everybody that's getting into solar today is pretty much an early adopter. There was a lot of shaken confidence. It's an obstacle we deal with."

Abouelata is involved in small and large projects, including a new one-megawatt system outside of Knoxville where solar panels are stretched across 5.5 acres. That's enough to power about 120 homes.

The system, ready for a ribbon cutting next month, was one of 39 large-scale projects in the pipeline for Generation Partners when the moratorium hit, leaving green power developers in a sweat across the region.

The Generation Partners program reimburses residents and companies $1,000 of startup costs and pays, in some cases, more than double the retail cost of electricity for what is produced.

The arrangement, along with federal tax credits, makes alternative energy more economically viable, and the program had begun giving a boost to the still fledgling solar industry.

The moratorium took effect when applications quickly multiplied this spring - including for some huge solar and other installations - and the $50 million in TVA funds available could not support them all.

"The message is we're fulfilling all those commitments out there," John Trawick, TVA's head of commercial operations and pricing, said Tuesday.

The large projects, which could otherwise shut out new participation by residents and small businesses, won't count against the $50 million cap. They'll be treated as a purchased power expense, Trawick said. TVA regularly buys power from independent producers.

Going forward, the program will remain limited to projects that are 200 kilowatts or less - a homeowner would generally install an 8-10 kilowatt solar-cell system. How large projects will be treated after Aug. 31 remains to be determined through study and consultation with renewable developers and others, he said.

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is among groups and companies applauding TVA's latest step.

Mike VanDenBerg, owner of Forevergreen Solar LLC in Nashville, which puts in the smaller solar installations, said he was glad that big projects aren't shut out.

"It's critical if you really want to have significant renewable energy production to allow large scale projects to come on line," he said.

As it is, the TVA Generation Partners program, which buys 100 percent of the green power generated, is attractive for its payback for solar of 12 cents over the retail cost of electricity.

In other words, homeowners can get a credit on their utility bills of 22 cents per kilowatt-hour generated while they pay about 10 cents per kilowatt-hour - the retail price - for electricity they use.

A commercial operation can end up getting a credit for about 19 cents a kilowatt-hour.

The state is starting to pop with new solar companies, college classes on solar power, state programs and TVA's new spirit of cooperation, Abouelata said.

"I've worked with TVA off and on for several years and this is the best communication and the best we've ever had as far as a partnership and working together and making things happen," he said.

TVA's Trawick said the goal now to fully support the Generation Partners program is to strengthen the 11-year-old Green Power Switch program, in which residents can pay extra on their bills to help cover TVA payments for green power.

A total of 12,500 customers, mainly residents, were doing so as of May.

About 60 percent of TVA's electricity, sold through Nashville Electric Service and other distributors, comes from burning coal, a relatively cheap source of power for TVA. About 30 percent is from nuclear plants and about 9 percent is generated through hydroelectric projects at dams. The rest is mainly from natural gas, with a smidgen from green power.

For information about the program, call TVA at 866-673-4340.