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Solar permitting — Knox County, Tennessee

FIPS 47093

0 indexed meetings (0 energy-related), 0 PSC dockets, 0 news items, 11 known opposition groups.

C
Knox County, TN
Risk score 50.9/100 · Full scorecard →
Compliance: HighTrajectory: StableSaturation: High

Knox County scores C reflecting urban land constraints making utility-scale solar impractical (similar to Davidson/Hamilton dynamic) rather than polic. Permitting: Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission: Land use pl

Key driver: Knox County scores C reflecting urban land constraints making utility-scale solar impractical (similar to Davidson/Hamilton dynamic) rather than policy hostility. KUB's clean energy orientation is a positive factor, and a small number of rural-fringe sites have development potential, but the county as a whole is not a utility-scale solar venue.

Permitting process

Local permitting pathway

Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission: Land use plan governs. Projects in AG (Agricultural) zones require CUP; very limited AG-zoned land available.

Setbacks & buffers

Knox County Zoning Ordinance governs; no utility-scale solar-specific provisions relevant given urban context. Limited Agricultural-zoned land exists in extreme eastern and northeastern portions of the county.

Spacing requirements

None codified statewide. No minimum spacing between solar facilities required.

Size restrictions

None codified; managed via CUP/SUP conditions

Penalties & bonding

Total penalty: +15 | Hostile ordinance flag: +15

State-level permits & approvals

County zoning authority under SB 2373 (2022); no state solar preemption; conditional use permit or special exception typically required; decommissioning bond often required; setback standards increasingly codified

State policy & grid context

State RPS & clean energy policy

No binding RPS | None | Tennessee has no state RPS; TVA integrated resource planning only

State incentive programs

Federal ITC eligible; no Tennessee state solar tax credit; TVA Green Power Switch program available

Grid & interconnection

TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)

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Energy-related meetings & dockets P1

No meetings indexed yet for this jurisdiction.

State PSC dockets P1

No PSC dockets matched to this county yet.

Local news P3

News ingestion not yet active for this county (GDELT/RSS pipeline pending).

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Data sources: public agendas/minutes from local government sites; PSC dockets from state regulators; news from GDELT and curated RSS; sentiment derived from public meeting transcripts. Last refreshed 2026-06-10. See the county risk scorecard or the full Tennessee permitting index.