Agency plans to expand Green Power to Shoals area

Agency plans to expand Green Power to Shoals area
By Dennis Sherer
Staff Writer
July 17, 2001

By the end of this year, Shoals residents should be able to go for the green when they use electricity in their home or business.

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Green Power Switch program, which uses electricity produced by windmills, solar panels or landfill gas-powered generators, is expected to expand to the Shoals by the end of the year.

"It seems the response to the program has been much greater than they expected from the utilities they started with, and they just don't have any additional green power available at this time," said Jack Hilliard, general manager of Florence Utilities. "But as soon as they come up with some additional green power, we're scheduled to get some of it."

Hilliard is scheduled to meet with TVA officials this week to discuss installing a solar powered-generator in Florence. He said the generator would serve as an educational exhibit about green power and produce electricity for the green power program.

David Thornton, general manager of Tuscumbia Utilities, said TVA has discussed installing a solar-powered generator in Spring Park.

Utility departments in Florence, Sheffield, Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals are all expected to join the Green Power Switch program.

TVA is seeking sites throughout the Valley where the solar-powered generators can be installed. The agency also is searching for additional sites around the Valley to install windmills.

Three windmills on a mountaintop near Oak Ridge, Tenn., are TVA's only wind-powered generators. They are the only commercial wind-powered generators in the Southeast.

Jimmy Barnett, general manager of Sheffield Utilities, said he talks with TVA often about the Green Power Switch program and urges them to expand it to the Shoals.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in Knoxville, Tenn., said the difficulty that Shoals utilities face in joining the green power program is actually a good one to have.

"It shows people are really interested in joining the Green Power Switch program and helping save the environment," Smith said.

"The interest has been much greater than was expected."

Barnett said many more businesses have joined the green power program than anticipated, which has limited the amount of electricity available from it.

"There's a lot of businesses that want to be known as being environmentally friendly that are signing up for the green power program," Barnett said.

To participate in the program, residents or businesses agree to pay an additional $4 per month on their utility bill for each 150 kilowatt hour block of electricity they buy from the green power program.

Customers have no way of knowing that the electricity they are using came from a green power source, but the premium they pay for the service helps pay for the installation and upkeep of windmills, solar panels and landfill gas-powered generators, TVA spokesman John Moulton said.

Customers can purchase as many of the 150 kilowatt hour blocks of green power electricity as they wish, Moulton said.

For most Tennessee Valley homes, 150 kilowatt hours are about 12 percent of the monthly electrical power usage.

Smith said every kilowatt hour of electricity from a green power source saves a pound of coal from being burned at a fossil plant.

That reduces the amount of air pollution coming from fossil plants and environmental damage that can be caused by mining the fuel, he said.