The region, which has steadily gained prominence, catapulted to national attention this year as co-winner of a national award from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. The Tennessee Valley Corridor (TVC) shared the 2004 Excellence Award for “Enhancing Regional Competitiveness” with the Research Triangle Regional Partnership in Raleigh, N.C.

“The winning of this Economic Development Administration award is seen as a validation of all the working and dreaming of where we want to be,” says Darrell Akins, co-founder of AkinsCrisp Public Strategies, the firm that manages the TVC.

That dream, according to TVC Chairman Tom Ballard, is creation of a region that collaborates to offer companies a complete package. He says getting to that point means abandoning old rivalries between neighboring states trying to attract industry.

“We’re finding ways to collaborate and cooperate when it’s a lot easier to compete,” Ballard says. “We understand how to do it, and people are actually doing it. They’re collaborating and as we continue to reach out to others and grow the Corridor, we’ll do more substantive things and be even more successful than we’ve already been.”

Akins says the award is the culmination of a well-orchestrated effort to bring together all the technology players in the region for a single, unified goal—national leadership through regional cooperation. “This has been a long time coming,” Akins says. “We didn’t just wake up one day and say, ‘Let’s tap the Tennessee Valley as a technology region.’”

Ballard and Akins say Tennessee lawmakers inched toward the target over the past few decades, but it was Congressman Zach Wamp who really pushed the idea of a regional technology association.

“To understand where the Corridor is going, you have to start with applauding the vision of Congressman Zach Wamp 10 years ago,” Ballard says. “He recognized things we didn’t recognize about ourselves initially and saw that if he could get us to realize that we had shared values and to come together, that there’s a lot we could do.”

In the mid-1970s, former Sen. Howard Baker talked about the importance of a partnership between the University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Ten years later, Sen. Lamar Alexander (then Tennessee’s governor) embraced the notion of making Tennessee a technology state.

“We’ve long had science and technology entities, but didn’t think about ourselves as a technology state until Governor Alexander started these initiatives,” Akins says. “In 1994, Zach Wamp was elected and took the idea of a summit to new Governor Don Sundquist. He embraced it, and the first summit was a year later, in 1995.”

That first summit focused largely on how to keep people working in the region. The Cold War was over, and many of the national security jobs in Oak Ridge were going away.

Mike Arms, chief of staff for Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, says the first summit gave birth to the notion of an organized, regional technology association with an economic development effort geared toward technology. It was so successful that the organizer suggested doing it again the next year.

“We had a brand new governor and a new U.S. Secretary of Energy. So, the timing was right for this whole region to get its message out, to begin a communications effort,” Arms says.

The Corridor’s history of strong bipartison political support continues through champions like U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Corridor Congressman Wamp, R-Tenn., Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., also sit on the appropriations committee. Other key congressional leaders in the Corridor are Rep. John J. Duncan, R-Tenn., Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn., and Rep. Bill Jenkins, R-Tenn.

The fall meeting Nov. 4-5 in Rep. Rogers’ hometown of Somerset, Ky., will be the 14th in a series of events since the initial summit in Oak Ridge nine years ago. Akins says the key now is to leverage the national awareness of the EDA award and concentrate on what the TVC calls Valley Ventures.

“These are a handful of things we’ve identified as crucial to success. They include homeland security, transportation, etc.—we want the Tennessee Valley to be a model for the nation on how to re-use land that has been previously used for federal or industrial purposes, workforce and education.”

Corridor's Technology Connection

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville anchor the Corridor at its southern tip. In this northern Alabama town, a strong agricultural heritage is matched only by industry firmly rooted in space exploration, defense and technology.

“When you look at what goes on in Huntsville, in Tullahoma and throughout the Tennessee Valley Corridor, it’s not just the cotton fields and tobacco farming, although we’re proud of that,” says Rex Geveden, deputy director at Marshall. “In the middle of these fields spring up buildings that are responsible for great technological breakthroughs.”

Geveden says those breakthroughs are made possible only through strong regional partnerships.

“We have a mission in NASA called the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter Mission. It requires a nuclear power source. We typically do not fly nuclear-powered spacecraft and what we’re trying to do now is literally fly a reactor,” Geveden says. “We don’t have the ability to do that, but the folks up at Oak Ridge and Y-12 do. So, we’re working with them right now on developing that.”

Since it was formed out of an initial meeting in 1995, The Tennessee Valley Corridor has built an alliance of community, business, education and government leaders through twice-yearly regional economic summits.

One of the more significant tangible accomplishments is the Tri-Lateral Alliance for interagency cooperation between NASA’s Marshall, Arnold Air Force Engineering Development Center in Tullahoma, and the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 defense plant.

Dave Southard is vice president of business development for IPIX, an Oak Ridge-based company that creates 360-degree surveillance systems. He says he wants the corridor to be known as the Silicon Valley of defense and homeland security.

“We love helping to bring new companies into the area. It strengthens our local economy, and increases our ability to collaborate,” Southard says. “We want to create good solid jobs and have good growth.”

Thanks to UT and ORNL, IPIX is part of a group of approximately 20 companies that meet regularly to define needs and develop products geared specifically to homeland security. Southard says the quality of businesses involved has earned a national reputation, and the Corridor’s twice-yearly economic summits now attract companies from all over the world.

“It has become a worn-out expression to talk about a public-private partnership, but this really is a partnership in its truest form,” says Darrell Akins, who manages the Tennessee Valley Corridor through his firm, AkinsCrisp Public Strategies. “It really brings to life what can be done when the right partners come together to work toward a common goal—to build and sustain a science and technology economy for the region.”

Jobs Now! is a regional public/ private partnership headquartered in Knoxville that has raised $12 million since its creation in 2002.

“We have lofty goals, including creation of 30,000 jobs over the next five years,” says Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale. “We want to raise family incomes between $7,000 and $9,000 per family. And we want $2.5 billion dollars in non-residential capital investment. Our first-year goals were met, and we’re on track to meet our second-year goals.”

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Director Bill Baxter says the partnerships between civilian and federal agencies throughout the Corridor are what define it as a competitive hot-spot. He says it will take hard work to hold onto and capitalize on the region’s growing reputation. To that end, he says it is imperative to continue investment in two areas: high-tech education and high-tech infrastructure.

“I’m proud to say that TVA has just this year entered into an agreement with Oak Ridge National Lab to extend the high-tech infrastructure in Tennessee and eventually across the Valley by allowing high speed cables to be placed on our towers for use by supercomputers,” Baxter says. “We used to think of infrastructure as roads and water lines, but now that includes high-speed communication infrastructure.”

Baxter says the other critical component to a competitive edge is a quality workforce, produced by universities with strong technical programs.

Eight higher education institutions have partnered with the corridor: East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, University of Alabama-Huntsville, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma and Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg.

“When North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park was formed, it focused on three strong universities. Of course, our universities are very strong; they’re just more spread out,” says Mike Arms, chief of staff for Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale. “Since we started the summit exercise, important partnerships have been made with higher learning institutions. For instance, the University of Tennessee has teamed with Battelle to manage Oak Ridge National Lab. Now, we’re trying to make sure UT leverages that great opportunity.”

At Virginia Tech, sensors invented by researchers with the Center for Photonics Technology will make oil wells more productive. Separately, an economical fuel cell material created by faculty and students with the Macromolecules and Interfaces Insti-tute, led by University Distinguished Professor of Chemistry James McGrath, will reduce dependence on petroleum-based energy. R&D Magazine selected both of these energy-related developments from Virginia Tech as two of the 100 most technologically significant new products of 2003.

“We’re solving big national problems, like how to win the war on terror and how to address air and water pollution problems,” Akins says.

When businesses consider moving into the Tennessee Valley, one of the biggest draws is the reliable power provided by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“When you talk to executives, they need to know that utilities, including electric power, are going to be reliable and reasonably priced,” Baxter says. “Price is important because it can be a large component of the price of the finished goods.”

In 2001, when Californians suffered through rolling blackouts because power demands in the high-tech state outpaced supplies, Tennessee economic development officials blanketed the state with business relocation ads.

“If the power goes out, the plant shuts down and the company loses money, far more money than it might pay for its electricity,” Baxter says. “In the Tennessee Valley, our record of reliability is excellent. When you look at what has happened in California and in the Northeast United States just in the past couple of years, it’s a reminder of the importance of reliable power. So, we have not been bashful about reminding people of our strength in this area.”

Another point economic development officials in the Corridor like to make is the modest cost of living, a bonus to companies trying to attract workers. Housing costs are generally lower, home energy costs are less, and commuter times in the Tennessee Valley are significantly shorter when compared with other major regions. At the same time, incomes tend to be higher because the science and technology industries boost the number of residents with advanced degrees.

“With 12,000 degreed engineers, Huntsville has one of the highest income levels in the country, but a relatively low cost of living and doing business,” says Brian Hilson, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce in Huntsville, Ala. “We think it’s a very healthy combination. If there’s a drawback, it’s that we’re a medium size metro area. That alone causes us to not be recognized with some of the larger places, even though we are often ranked with them.”

The ability to link with the Tennessee Valley Corridor makes Huntsville stand out more, Hilson says.

Mike Monett with the Department of Energy’s BWXT Y-12 plant agrees. “‘I see a very bright future. We have a huge amount of synergy with a lot of futuristic, adept businesses, federal agencies and partners that is really giving us a significant amount of momentum.”

Tri-Cities - Tennessee/Virgina

While the cities of Kingsport, Bristol and Johnson City give Tri-Cities its name, the region actually reaches into Virginia and a little of North Carolina. It has long been known for its natural beauty, and in the past couple of decades, it has quietly made a name for itself in the medical, pharmaceutical and chemical industries.

“In this area, a medical corridor has been identified,” says Dennis Vonderfecht, president and CEO of Mountain States Health Alliance, a not-for-profit health care system headquartered in Johnson City. “It is anchored by the Veterans Administration Medical Center, East Tennessee State University’s (ETSU) Quillen College of Medicine and ETSU’s Innovation Lab.”

The Innovation Lab is a business incubator with a mission to partner entrepreneurs and investors to establish technology-based startup and spin-off companies.

Vonderfecht says he wants to make sure there is space and adequate support once companies move past the incubation stage. To that end, Mountain State Health Alliance has invested about $12 million in the development of Med Tech Regional Business Park, a 130-acre medical technical park in Johnson City.

“It’s a partnership between us and Johnson City, to hopefully attract new businesses that are medical or technical,” Vonderfecht says. “My involvement in the whole Tennessee Valley Corridor is the desire for knowledge-based job creation. What we hope to do is create jobs for graduates of ETSU.”

Susan Reid, the executive director of First Tennessee Development District, an association of local governments in the Tri-Cities area, says it is typical for businesses there to work together.

Reid says ETSU is trying to start a school of pharmacy, yet another effort to supply qualified workers to industries already in existence in the region. Specifically, King Pharmaceuticals in Bristol began operations in 1994 and now manufactures more than 60 branded prescription drug product lines.

In Kingsport, Eastman Chemical employs about eight thousand people. The company is the largest producer of polyester plastics for packaging and supplies raw materials for paints and coatings, inks, graphic arts and adhesives.

“They are very stable and a good corporate citizen,” Reid says of Eastman. “They’re very involved in the community and education initiatives.”

In 1999, the National Civic League awarded Tri-Cities All-America City designation—the first region to achieve it.

Reid says Tri-Cities qualified for the award by demonstrating how cities that once fought against one another in turf rivalries benefited from working together as a united region.

“Plus, we have a beautiful, clean environment, friendly people, a low cost of living, low crime rate and wonderful recreational opportunities,” Reid says.

The Bristol Motor Speedway hosts two Nextel Cup dates every year—NASCAR’s hottest tickets. But regional activities aren’t limited to observation. Kingsport has the largest city park in the nation; and for hiking enthusiasts, a portion of the Appalachian Trail runs through the region.

Knoxville, Oak Ridge - Southern/Eastern Kentucky

“As part of Appalachia, we have always been known for our strong work ethic,” says Mike Arms, chief of staff to Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale. “But we’re also drawing strong scientists and engineers.”

A head count through Knoxville, Oak Ridge and into Somerset, Ky., finds more than 3,500 Ph.D.s, 45,000 high-tech professionals and 15,000 college students majoring in information technology, science, math or engineering.

Those great minds are collaborating to create the next generation in science, defense and homeland security.

“The Department of Energy (DOE) has a great deal of interest in what’s going on in the TVC,” says Gerald Boyd, the DOE’s manager of Oak Ridge operations. “The DOE is a major player in the Tennessee Valley Corridor—one of the largest federal organizations in East Tennessee—and therefore, we have a lot of interest in economic development issues in the corridor.”

At IPIX, research and development focus on market-ready products for the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security. “What the leaders of appropriations for Homeland Security have told us is they have seen every idea or proprietary system out there,” says Dave Southard, vice president of business development at IPIX. “They’re asking for the whole solution, not just part of it. And that’s what the companies in the Tennessee Valley Corridor can do.”

Mike Monett at BWXT Y-12, a DOE National Security Complex, says the organization is latching tightly onto homeland security efforts, while also marketing in-house developments that would help government and industry with security.

“A member of our staff is in the process of modeling the entire Internet,” Monett says. “By manipulating what kinds of software and firewalls are on servers, he can see how to best contain viruses.”

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) soon will have the largest supercomputer in the world, Arms says.

The laboratory played a significant role in the Human Genome Project, which was coordinated by the Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health. The initial project concluded in 2003 after identifying all the approximately 30,000 genes in human DNA and determining the sequences of the three billion chemical base pairs that make up human DNA.

ORNL is also home to the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), a facility being constructed in partnership with six Department of Energy laboratories. Scheduled for completion in 2006, SNS will provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development.

One noteworthy ORNL spin-off is Oak Ridge-based Remotec.

The company, now a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, designs and manufactures mobile robotic systems, primarily for use in bomb disposal.

The Southeastern Business Unit headquarters for Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), the largest employee-owned research and engineering company in the country, is also in Oak Ridge.

Research in the area isn’t bound by four walls. Darrell Akins, a key leader of the Tennessee Valley Corridor, says Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a huge laboratory.

“It’s the most visited national park in the country, but some of the most interesting plant and animal research going on in the world is going on there,” Akins says.

Through a process termed reindustrialization, the U.S. Department of Energy’s East Tennessee Technology Park is entering its second life. Parts of the Oak Ridge complex are being leased—along with equipment and reusable materials—to companies interested in performing cleanup work or recycling.

Two Knoxville-based companies—IdleAire Technologies and Pilot Travel Centers—signed an agreement this year for IdleAire to install its electrification systems at Pilot locations across the country. IdleAire’s system is installed in truck parking lots to allow drivers to turn off their engines instead of idling to heat or cool the cab and use in-cab accessories while they rest.

Knox County Mayor Ragsdale says the city sees itself as a hub for the Corridor and has committed $250,000 to put a technology incubator center on the University of Tennessee campus to fine-tune the turning of research into private sector jobs.

“We’ve had some success, but we’re just starting a dynamic effort that will re-define the area,” Ragsdale says. “We’re in a situation where we can compete with any area in the world.”

Chattanooga High-Tech Business Services

“This is a world-renowned program where they have developed computer simulating and engineering to the next level,” says Tom Edd Wilson, president of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. “For example, you’d like to know how a nuclear submarine is going to behave in a crash. Well, the SimCenter can model it.”

Wilson says Chattanooga has a rich manufacturing heritage and a strong technological background making it “a hub for taking the research and development from those places and turning them into commercial products.”

One of the first commercial producers of nanofibers today, eSpin, is based in Chattanooga. The company has developed processes for mass-producing nanofibers that are so small a red blood cell looks like a bowling ball next to them. The company touts a wide variety of applications—from car filters to mascaras that hold eyelashes longer without clumping. Loftier research includes work on spacesuits that are a fraction of an inch thick. Surgical applications include gum grafts and blood filters that can be woven into a person’s arteries. The company often collaborates with resources at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Another research company in Chattanooga that draws on ORNL knowledge is Accurate Automation. The firm specializes in advanced unmanned aerial vehicles and guided missiles.

“They have developed a number of drone jet vehicles,” Wilson says. “These are super fast robotic airplanes that have the ability to carry reconnaissance devices.”

A different kind of vehicle—clean-powered and energy efficient—is the focus of Advanced Transportation Technology Institute (ATTI). The Chattanooga-headquartered private nonprofit organization advances clean transportation technologies. Its mission fits well with Chattanooga’s plans to build a high-speed magnetic levitation rail line to Atlanta. The super fast train could be running sometime between 2010 and 2015. Right now, the city is waiting for Congress to authorize a transportation bill with money earmarked for a national high-speed rail system.

To make the best use of federal grant money and other revenue allocated for research, Chattanooga and Hamilton County created the Enterprise Center.

“You know, you could have a federally funded computer simulation project on one side of town and a similar project on the other side of town and the two facilities may not know each other exist,” Wilson says. “It’s a good idea to get people in the world of technology together to explore what’s going on in our community.”

While under the leadership of Mayor Bob Corker technology has played a crucial role in linking Chattanooga to other cities in the Corridor, it may be best known as the hometown of Blue-Cross BlueShield of Tennessee. Income protection insurer UnumProvident is also headquartered in Chattanooga. And Little Debbie, the staple of elementary school lunch boxes everywhere, calls Chattanooga home. The brand’s parent company, McKee Foods, also makes Sunbelt snacks and cereals.

Tullahoma/Huntsville

Located in Huntsville, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center develops and makes space shuttle main engines, external tanks for space shuttles (the large orange tank on the side), solid rocket boosters and re-usable solid rocket motors.

“It’s all the fire and smoke, the propulsion systems that get the shuttle into orbit,” says Rex Geveden, the Center’s deputy director. He says most people identify NASA with launches at Kennedy or mission control at Houston, but most of the front-end development work takes place in Huntsville.

Close by, in Tullahoma, the University of Tennessee Space Institute, which is adjacent to the Arnold Engineering Development Center that houses the world’s largest collection of wind tunnels, has trained eight of the astronauts who either have flown or will fly missions for the space administration.

“Tullahoma has a history of aviation going back to World War II, when we had Camp Forrest outside Tullahoma,” says Tullahoma Mayor Steve Cope. “We had, of course, the training center out at the local airport. That eventually led to Arnold Air Force Base being located here. When you consider Arnold and what it has meant to our region economically, it’s impossible to put a number on the benefits.”

Hilson says about 50% of the industry in the Huntsville/Tullahoma metro area is dependent on space and defense.

In the 1960s, community leaders in the region recognized that while defense and space industries had been good for the community, they needed to look beyond the government sector for economic development.

“We needed to diversify,” Hilson says, “We set out on an aggressive effort that continues to this day.”

Hilson says economic development began to play a bigger role, as did manufacturing.

“All these things combined to create an economic climate that makes it attractive for some really smart people to continue to develop technology businesses here,” Hilson says.

Marshall’s Geveden says the center is interested in the economic success of the metro Huntsville area.

“There’s no difference in technological and economic leadership,” Geveden says. “Right now, we’re trying to execute the president’s vision for space exploration, which includes returning to the moon and travel to Mars. It’s going to take more human capital—meaning intellectual horsepower—and the right kind of engineering capabilities.”

Programs at both the University of Alabama at Huntsville and Alabama A&M make the region an ideal place to recruit, Hilson says.

He says establishment of a strong science and technology park was also crucial to Huntsville’s reputation. What is now Cummings Research park was established in 1962 and is now the second largest research park in the country. It’s the fourth largest in the world. Cummings has more than 20,000 daily employees.

But the dominant player in Huntsville is the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal. With more than 38,000 acres and more than 30,000 workers, Hilson says Redstone is itself basically a technology park. The Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) was established at Redstone in 1997 as a readiness command to develop, acquire, field and sustain Army aviation and missile weapons systems.

AMCOM manages Army aviation and missile systems, from research and development to procurement and production, from spare parts available to flight safety, and from maintenance and overhaul to eventual retirement.

“We also have 33 foreign-based companies that have been attracted here and grown here since the 1960s,” Hilson says. “Among them is Toyota, which selected Huntsville three years ago for a V-8 manufacturing facility—the first V-8s to be manufactured by Toyota outside of Japan.”

Putting Ideas to Work - Tom Rogers of Tech 2020

Technology is the true differentiator for the Tennessee Valley Corridor. The ideas generated every day in institutions like Marshall Space Flight Center, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and universities throughout the Corridor are the source of economic development potential.

Tapping that potential is where Tom Rogers steps in. Rogers is president and CEO of Tech 2020, an entrepreneurial support system.

“We manage a network of business incubators, provide coaching and counseling to business startups and access to capital—both loans and venture capital—to help these businesses grow,” Rogers says.

In addition to working directly in areas like Oak Ridge, Knoxville and Chattanooga, Rogers says Tech 2020 is building a strong network throughout the Corridor. He has partnered with Kentucky Highlands—a nationally recognized economic development group from Southeast Kentucky—to create the Southern Appalachian Fund. Tech 2020 also communicates on a regular basis with incubator managers in Tri-Cities, Huntsville, Virginia Tech and Western North Carolina.

He says the network fosters growth by sharing ideas and best practices. Rogers says a staff of professionals who have “been there and done that” can help entrepreneurs with whatever challenges they face this week, this month and in the next several years.

One example Rogers uses is a company called NucSafe. The proprietor, Rick Seymour, licensed a Department of Energy technology several years ago that detects the presence of radioactive materials. After Sept. 11, 2001, his business in the homeland security space took off. Tech 2020 counseled Seymour and his staff and loaned him money on several occasions. Today, Seymour has graduated from a business incubator and a handful of people to two offices and 36 employees.

“The analogy I like to use is oak trees and acorns,” Rogers says. “We want the very best acorns to fall close to the trees, and we’re in the business of nurturing those acorns, helping them grow into the oak trees of the 21st century.”

Location. Location. Location. - Bill Baxter, Director of TVA

Location. Location. Location. It’s that old real estate adage that best explains why the Tennessee Valley Corridor is positioned to grow.

“The logistics of bringing in raw materials and shipping finished goods out of the Tennessee Valley are very efficient,” says Bill Baxter, director of the Tennessee Valley Authority. “You can reach 75% of the U.S. market in a day’s drive in a freight truck. I-40 is the most traveled east-west interstate. I-75 is the most traveled north-south. The two intersect in Tennessee, making its location superior and a positive business difference.”

In addition to geographic location, prime incentives for relocation or expansion are workforce productivity and quality of life.

Baxter says various automotive plants measure productivity “very scientifically” and compare the performance of their plants all across the world. Consistently, Tennessee plants outperform their peers worldwide.

“We grow up with a strong work ethic here,” Baxter says. “I think it’s as simple as that. People grow up being proud to work hard and produce a good product.”

Because the workforce is so well suited to the automotive industry, Baxter says TVA’s economic development office is preparing for future opportunities before they arrive.

TVA recently funded a mega-site analysis by McCallum Sweeney, a site-selection consulting firm. It examined 25 potential locations for auto mega-sites. So far, two sites have been certified as ready for an auto assembly plant. The other 23 are being analyzed to see if they would be good for assembly or perhaps an automotive parts manufacturer.

“Valley-wide through August, the eleventh month of our fiscal year, we were involved in $1.9 billion worth of projects,” Baxter says. “We created or retained more than 44,000 jobs.”

Through the Valley Advantage Fund, which was created two years ago, TVA partners with communities to support specific projects. Through the fund, Baxter says TVA has invested $5 million in approximately 40 projects across the Valley.

During the past three years, TVA and its partners in the Valley have helped attract or retain more than 143,000 jobs for the communities it serves.

TVA’s core business, of course, is electric power. The TVA system, with 17,000 miles of transmission line and 984 customer interchange and connection points, has maintained 99.999% reliability over the past four years. And just recently, TVA entered into an agreement with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to allow high speed cables to be placed on TVA towers allowing others to connect to ORNL’s supercomputers.

While the Tennessee Valley offers significant business advantages, Baxter says it’s another aspect of the location that draws people here—its beauty.

“In a modern economy, companies and people can locate in many places for their business,” Baxter says. “There is simply no more beautiful place to live than the Tennessee Valley with our rivers, mountains and outdoor recreation. This greatly enhances the business attractiveness of this region.”

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