The Tennessee Valley Authority, which provides electricity in seven states, recently announced that it approved more than 250 small renewable energy projects across its service area—all for 2013, and the vast majority of them are solar projects. In all it will incorporate 17.5 megawatts of distributed generation projects.

TVA, which was first set up in 1933 to reduce flood damage and electrify the largely rural Tennessee Valley watershed. It now serves more than 9 million people. And like many utilities it’s trying to increase the amount of renewables in its generation portfolio. In fact, the government-owned corporation is pushing to install 100 megawatts of renewables in its service area.

“Reviewing and approving 250-plus solar projects within the Tennessee Valley in just a few months is a tremendous feat,” said Patty West, TVA’s director of renewable energy programs. She added that local power companies played a major role in getting the projects approved and will be instrumental in inspecting all the home and business installations.

Despite adding in the extra renewable energy prices are continuing to fall. “Reaching our 2013 application targets demonstrates that TVA’s renewable energy programs are popular even as we lower premium levels consistent with falling prices of renewable technology,” West said. “Our goal is to provide 9 million power consumers cleaner electricity, without impacting the cost of electricity that we all pay.”

The company has approved the projects through two programs, its Green Power Providers program and it’s Solar Solutions Initiative pilot. Under the former it accepted applications for more than 250 systems, totaling nearly 7.5 megawatts of new distributed generation. All but two of the approved installations for 2013 are solar projects.

Now that TVA has approved the new projects under the Green Power Providers program, home and business owners that were accepted need to get to work. “Residents and businesses are given 180 days to install their renewable system after they are approved,” West said. “If a project doesn’t move forward or can’t be installed in a timely manner, we can allow someone else the opportunity to build a system. This helps create sustainable, predictable renewable generation growth.”

Under the new pilot, TVA said it received 12 project applications totaling 10 megawatts. That program provides incentives for large distributed solar projects between 50 kilowatts and 1 megawatt that are installed by Tennessee Valley installers.

While the Solar Solutions Incentives program was limited to 10 megawatts for 2013, it’s not accepting applications for more solar this year. However, the Green Power Providers Program had about 500 kilowatts available for systems under 10 kilowatts in size.