Is It Sufficient To Generate Electric Power?

Is It Sufficient
To Generate
Electric Power?
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER

Is there enough wind blowing through the Camp Creek community to support future installation there of wind turbines that would generate electricity?

That is what a non-profit organization called the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy hopes to learn by installing a 135-foot-tall tower on the football field at Camp Creek Elementary School for the next several months.

Bill Carroll, general manager of the Greeneville Light & Power System, said on Thursday that GL&PS employees planned to begin installing anchors for the new tower on the school's football field Friday, if the weather was suitable.

The anchors were put in place on Friday as scheduled.

Carroll said Thursday that the tower itself is scheduled to be erected today.

Brandon Blevins, wind-program coordinator for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the 135-foot tower

will be capped with a wind-speed measuring device known as an anemometer.

He said the new tower is on loan from the Tennessee Wind Working Group and is scheduled to remain in place until late July.

The portable tower will be removed from the football field at Camp Creek Elementary before the start of football season in August, he added.

The National Weather Service installed a 30-foot tower adjacent to the football field at Camp Creek Elementary School last fall to gather data on a weather phenomenon called "mountain waves."

But Blevins said the much taller tower that is being installed will provide even better data.

He also noted that his organization plans to use data collected by the National Weather Service tower for the months when the new tower was not in place but the NWS tower was in place.

"We normally like to leave our towers in place for a year," Blevins said.

But he added that his organization plans to develop wind data for an entire year using a combination of data gathered while the new tower is in operation -- from now through the end of July -- and data from the National Weather Service tower, and extrapolating from that combination of data.

A STUDY FOR THE GL&PS

He explained that the tower is being used to gather data for a feasibility study of wind-power potential in Camp Creek that his organization plans to complete for the Greeneville Light & Power System.

Blevins said he expects to be able to present a final report on wind-power potential in the Camp Creek area in August.

Greene County Board of Education member David Johnson, Jr., who suggested such a study last fall, said on Thursday that he was glad to learn that the tower was about to be erected.

"I'm just trying to get some cheap energy for the school system," Johnson said of plans to complete the feasibility study concerning the potential for wind power.

Blevins said the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy plans in April to install a similar test tower at the Linda Hughes Dawson Lumber Company along Tennessee Highway 81.

In addition, he said, his organization has performed a similar study for Jonesborough in the past and is working with Johnson City in an effort to determine if wind-driven turbines are feasible for installation on Buffalo Mountain there.

SMALL TURBINES

In general, small wind turbines need to be installed in areas that experience a consistent wind of more than 8 miles per hour, according to the Web site of the Tennessee Wind Working Group.

"In the state of Tennessee this often occurs at elevations over 1,500 feet along the Cumberland Plateau and in the Appalachian Mountains, although West Tennessee has reported conditions favorable for small wind applications," the Web site says.

Wind energy systems are often classified in two different categories -- small wind and large wind -- according to the Web site of the Tennessee Wind Working Group.

According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), a small wind turbine is a turbine with a rated capacity below 100-kilowatts.

Small wind turbines are sized for homes, farms, and small businesses and are used for numerous applications.

The applications range from powering a small battery bank for back-up power, to reducing utility bills, all the way to powering a home or small business without needing to be connected to the electric grid.

Owners of small wind turbines often prefer to have their properties remain connected to the electric grid in order

to use power from the grid when the wind is not strong enough to meet the required energy demands.

To promote the use of distributed power, such as small wind energy applications, the TVA created a program called TVA Green Power Switch Generation Partners Program, that allows customers of participating distributors to sell their power back to TVA for a premium rate of $0.15/kWh produced.

"This is ideal for customers who want to generate their own power to sell the utility and offset their utility bills," the Web site says.

TENNESSEE WIND WORKING GROUP

The Tennessee Wind Working Group is a Department of Energy-funded program that is administered by the state of Tennessee's Economic and Community Development Energy Office.

The Tennessee Wind Working Group was co-founded in 2004 by TVA and the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in partnership with the state of Tennessee, and helped the state join a national network of state Wind Working Groups that are part of the U.S. Department of Energy's Wind Powering America (WPA) program.

The Tennessee Wind Working Group is described as consisting of a strong network of people and organizations working together to provide information to various organizations and stakeholders regarding the responsible development of wind power in the state.

Members include representatives from utility interests, state and federal agencies, economic development organizations, non-government organizations, local decision makers, educational institutions, and wind industry representatives. The working group is facilitated by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

The Tennessee Wind Working Group is committed to supporting the Department of Energy by helping educate and inform key stakeholders about wind energy in the State of Tennessee, according to its Web site.

"The State of Tennessee's wind resources have been identified to contribute over 1,000 milliwatts of wind energy to this national vision, based on wind resource potential and current wind energy incentives," the Web site says.