Associated Press DUNCAN MANSFIELD 2008-03-07 10:03:16
The Tennessee Valley Authority developed the Southeast's first full-scale wind farm to turn the power of the wind into electricity. But energy experts and environmentalists say the nation's largest public utility should do more.
"We are in the process of developing a strategy right now," Joe Hoagland, TVA's new vice president for energy efficiency, said Wednesday. "We are going through what is really viable in renewable (energy) in the Southeast that makes economic sense."
Experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Electric Power Research Institute, the University of Tennessee, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and others offered suggestions Wednesday during a TVA-sponsored hearing.
TVA now gets most of its renewable energy from an 18-turbine wind farm atop Buffalo Mountain in Anderson County. The agency also has 16 small solar-power sites across its seven-state region and recycles methane from Memphis' wastewater treatment plant to supplement its coal-fired plant in that city.
Nearly 13,000 consumers now participate in TVA's Green Power Switch program, paying a small premium each month for renewably generated electricity. But it still represents less than 1 percent of TVA's annual electric capacity.
Activists urged TVA to expand the program and explore greater use of biomass materials, such as wood chips, as a supplemental fuel in its coal-fired power plants.
The request comes as Congress considers mandating that utilities meet renewable-energy quotas – 24 states already have them, though not Tennessee – and reductions in carbon emissions from coal-fired plants.
John Wilson with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said TVA should try to achieve 20 percent of power demand from renewable energy by 2020, 15 percent at the minimum.
"It is very doable," he said, by adding wind turbines, supporting small hydroelectric generators and using the region's vast biomass potential, especially in Tennessee and Mississippi.
But Stuart Dalton with utility-funded Electric Power Research Institute said there is not enough wind in the Southeast to create a major renewable source, and large-scale solar electric systems are not a short-term solution.
He said biomass is TVA's "strongest near-term regional option," but even with that, TVA shouldn't expect to get much more than 9 percent of its energy mix from renewables by 2020.
"I think TVA's best strategy is to set … goals and act on them, even if TVA is exempted from the (federal) mandates," said Ed Holt, a national energy consultant.
