Finley goes with Green Power

Finley goes with Green Power
Solar project launches EPB's environmentally friendly program

BY DAVE FLESSNER
BUSINESS EDITOR

Chattanooga's Finley Stadium hasn't always generated the energy that its supporters envisioned since it opened four years ago. But the Tennessee Valley Authority is changing that.

TVA is using a parking lot next to the downtown football stadium for the biggest solar energy generation complex of its type in the South. Chattanooga's EPB is using the dedication today of the stadium's solar panels to launch a new way for consumers to support solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

"These type of solar panels are not necessarily the answer to our future energy needs, but they are a way to develop the technologies that will be," EPB President Harold DePriest said Monday. "Hopefully, this will create some new energy and excitement for Finley Stadium and for the start of TVA's Green Power program in Chattanooga."

EPB is one of a dozen TVA distributors now offering consumers the option of paying a monthly premium to help TVA develop renewable energy sources such as the Finley Stadium solar panels.

In the past year, TVA has added windmills atop Buffalo Mountain near Knoxville, a methane gas recovery plant at a Murfreesboro landfill and 10 solar-collecting panels across the valley. TVA is preparing to add more wind generators and is trying to use methane gas from a wastewater plant in Memphis to help power its Allen Steam Plant.

To pay the extra expense of the $7 million initiative, electric customers who want to support green or renewable energy may buy 150-kilowatthour blocks of

Green Power comes to town
TVA will dedicate its newest and largest solar power site today at Finley Stadium. The solar power is part of TVA's Green Power program, which Chattanooga's EPB will begin offering to its customers.

Capturing energy from the sun
TVA began operating 11 solar arrays on the parking lot south of Finley Stadium in July. The PV or solar cells can generate about 127,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year for EPB.

Renewable energy sources join TVA network
The Finley Stadium facility is the largest thin-film solar installation in the Southeast and the biggest of the 10 solar energy sites TVA has built under its 16-month-old Green Power program.

Turning on the Green Power switch
EPB is joining 11 other TVA distributors in offering the option of buying power generated from renewable sources. Residential customers may buy 150-kilowatt hour blocks of Green Power for an extra $4 a month.

"We think this program is definitely on the way up."
— Gary Harris, manager of TVA's Green Power program

and 175 businesses have signed up elsewhere in the Tennessee Valley to buy 11,584 blocks in the Green Power program.

"We've had a strong response so far, and with the addition now of Chattanooga and other distributors later this fall we think the program is definitely on the way

The 11 solar arrays erected near Finley Stadium contain 2,260 photovoltaic modules and can generate 77.3 kilowatts of alternating current each year. That's enough power for about eight or nine typical households.

TVA has pledged to add as much energy from renewable sources as what is collected in the Green Power program. But those who make the "Green Power Switch" won't necessarily be getting all of their power from renewable sources. The program simply supports the addition of renewable energy to

the TVA electric grid.
Nonetheless, environmentalists
who urged TVA to adopt the Green
Power program in the late 1990s
said they are encouraged so far.
"It's a foot in the door," said
Sandy Kurtz, a Murray Hills
homeowner and environmental
activist. "We need to support these
technologies to help them devel-
op and become more cost effec-
tive. But I think TVA needs to do
more on its own to support re-
newable energy to avoid the costs
to air quality and human health
from all of these coal plants."
Ms. Kurtz said she plans to
sign up for five of the Green
Power blocks offered by EPB "so
I can know that I'm 100 percent
green powered."
Stephen Smith, executive di-
rector of the Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy, said TVA distribu-
tors are finding that many cus-
tomers are willing to pay more for
power to ensure it is more envi-
ronmentally benign. But even at
Knoxville Utilities Board, where
response has been the greatest, on-
ly about 1 percent of its customers
have switched to cleaner power.
"I think you'll see a strong re-
sponse in Chattanooga," Dr.
Smith said. "The Finley Stadium
solar project creates visibility,
education and advertising for
the Green Power program along
with the energy it generates."
For Finley Stadium officials,
who have struggled to keep the
arena in the black because of low-
er-than-expected crowds at UTC
football games, TVA's solar pro-
ject provided a way to pave and
cover its VIP parking lot.
"It was a little hard to explain
to our VIPs why their parking lot
was still gravel, but the truth is
we didn't have the money to fin-
ish it," said Tim Riddle, executive
director of the Carter Street Corp.,
the joint city and county agency
which operates Finley Stadium.

Ronald Schmitt, a contract photographer for TVA, visits Finley
Stadium Monday to take pictures prior to today's dedication of
TVA's 11 solar arrays erected in the stadium's parking lot.