Tennessee’s advanced energy sector generates $55.9 billion in state GDP
Advanced energy accounts for more than 11 percent of the state's gross domestic product.
Just under half a million people in the state of Tennessee are employed in the advanced energy (AE) field. That’s about 15 percent of the workforce in our state. Additionally, these are not low-paying jobs. According to research by the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs prepared for the Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC), those jobs have an average salary of $74,000, which is about 31 percent higher than the state average.
The AE sector is growing rapidly at a rate of nearly seven percent per year. It’s no surprise since our state’s 22,500 companies committed to clean energy are spread out among all 95 counties in Tennessee.
Specifically in the Knoxville metropolitan statistical area, there are nearly 70,000 jobs, generating about $4.9 billion in payroll annually.
Some examples of the growing AE industry in Eastern Tennessee include Kairos Power, which is constructing one of the first advanced reactors in the U.S. in East Tennessee, and Orano selecting Tennessee as its preferred site to construct a multi-billion-dollar, state-of-the-art centrifuge uranium enrichment facility. Both of these opportunities exemplify East Tennessee’s commitment to Nuclear.
Additionally, the TAEBC pointed to the Spark Cleantech Accelerator at the University of Tennessee (UT) Research Park as being a key attractor for clean-energy start-ups in the region.
So, what exactly is an “advanced energy company?”
An advanced energy firm is defined as being directly involved with researching, developing, producing, manufacturing, distributing, selling, or implementing components, goods, or services related to advanced energy; energy effciency; renewable, nuclear, and natural gas electricity generation; distributed generation; advanced manufacturing; lightweight composites for the automotive industry; electric and hybrid vehicles; pollution control technologies; smart grid; and other related technologies.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a large example. In the first nine months of FY 2024, 57 percent of TVA’s power supply was carbon-free — coming from nuclear, hydroelectric, solar and wind. While the number still falls short of 100 percent, it is a drastic increase in the right direction.
Additionally, TVA has the nation’s third-largest nuclear fleet. Nuclear energy is carbon-free and can run all day, every day.
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