News Releases

CLINTON, Tenn., January 21 -- Tennessee’s Solar Initiative took another leap forward today with the announcement that Missouri-based Confluence Solar will invest $200 million in a manufacturing, warehousing and distribution facility in Clinton, Tenn., near Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

Confluence Solar manufactures high quality, mono-crystal silicon ingots that increase the efficiency and lower the cost of solar photovoltaic solar power generation.

Knoxville/Oak Ridge, Tenn., Oct. 15, 2009 – Already a hotbed of research, the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley has a new roadmap for turning those technological and human assets into a prosperous future. The strategy identifies four promising industry sectors:

• instrumentation
• nuclear energy
• bioenergy
• energy-related materials.

KNOXVILLE -- Thirty-eight East Tennessee farmers will be growing switchgrass for conversion to cellulosic ethanol as the University of Tennessee begins the second season of its switchgrass farmer incentive program.

Of the 38 farmers, 26 are new to the program; the rest also took part in 2008 and have added extra acreage for the 2009 growing season. A total of 1,901 acres in nine East Tennessee counties will be used to grow switchgrass this season. More than 2,600 acres have been enrolled in the program over the last two years.

Knoxville, Tenn. — Area educators have an opportunity to get a little schooling themselves this summer.

Partners in the regional economic development initiative Innovation Valley Inc. are launching “Educators in the Workplace Lunch & Learn” series this summer for teachers and guidance counselors in Blount, Knox, Loudon and Roane counties and Oak Ridge. The Lunch & Learn series is an opportunity for educators to meet with business people in a workplace setting.