TVA choosing solar energy sites

The Commercial Appeal
Monday, Dec. 6, 1999

TVA choosing solar energy sites
Folks will see 'green power' at work
By Tom Charlier
The Commercial Appeal

Whether it's a theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., a museum in Nashville or a stadium in Oxford, Miss., utilities will soon be generating electricity in some of the strangest places under the sun.

Schools, museums and athletic facilities are among the heavily trafficked and education-related sites tentatively chosen to receive solar panels when the Tennessee Valley Authority introduces nonpolluting "green power" next spring or summer.

Through an initiative that will eventually include wind power and the use of landfill gas, 10 of TVA's 159 distributors will help the agency test-market clean energy. The program is designed not only to gauge demand for green power but to educate the public.

"It's a learning process for us and our customers. I think it's important that we have this technology available to us in the future," said Jim White, general manager of the Gibson Electric Membership Corp. in Trenton, Tenn.

Gibson Electric is taking part in the program along with distributors in Bowling Green, Ky.; Chattanooga, Nashville, New Tazewell, Newport and Sevierville, Tenn.; Huntsville, Ala.; and Oxford, Miss., where both the city utility and a locally based electric cooperative are participating.

When the program gets started, customers of those distributors can choose to sign up to pay more on their monthly bills — $2-$10 has been the range elsewhere — to have a specified block of nonpolluting power added to the TVA electrical grid.

The kind of renewable energy TVA is promoting in the program remains a rarity in the U.S. power supply. Wind and solar combined accounted for about one-tenth of one percent of the energy consumed in 1997.

One reason is cost: Solar power, for instance, remains more than five times more expensive than traditional energy sources, although proponents believe it will become cheaper with expanded use.

Still, green power initiatives have gained momentum nationally.

tionwide amid the concerns
over smog, acid rain and global
climate change associated with
conventional power plants
burning fossil fuels. TVA gets
most of its power from coal-
fired plants, nuclear units and
large hydroelectric dams.
"We're going to see renew-
ables become a larger and
larger piece of the utility mix
in the next decade," said
Stephen Smith, executive di-
rector of the Tennessee Valley
Energy Reform Coalition,
which has worked with TVA on
the green power initiative.
The test program that's about
to get under way grew from
surveys in which TVA custom-
ers expressed high interest in
alternative power sources,
mainly solar and wind power
and landfill gas. The initiative
could evolve into a larger, per-
manent effort if demand is
high enough.
Of the three types of green
power available in the pro-
gram, solar is getting the earli-
est push. Working with con-
tractors, officials have been
looking for sites where panels
with photovoltaic cells should
be installed.
"We've asked distributors to
look for sites that provide high
visibility and an educational
opportunity," said TVA spokes-
man Barbara Martocci.
Although no contracts have
been signed, the sites tenta-
tively selected by distributors
include:
■ Dollywood theme park in
Pigeon Forge, where panels
would be placed on parking lot
awnings.
■ Cumberland Science Mu-
seum in Nashville, where pan-
els would occupy 6,000 to
10,000 square feet of the
grounds.
■ Gibson County (Tenn.)
High School, where panels
would be installed on the roof.
■ Athletic facilities at the
University of Mississippi cam-
pus in Oxford, where one pro-
spective spot is atop a souvenir
shop outside Vaught-
Hemingway Stadium.
The other participating dis-
tributors also are focusing on
schools, museums, libraries
and similar facilities.
By next June, officials say,
nine solar sites should be oper-
ating, each generating between
2 and 50 kilowatts of power.
That's a tiny output. Combined,
the solar sites will produce
enough power to supply the
needs of perhaps several dozen
or a few hundred homes. Each
of the three boilers at the TVA
Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis
generates 1,000 times more
electricity than all the solar
units will together.

By Deborah D. Young
Officials with the distributors
said they couldn't predict how
many of their customers might
participate. Since the green
power that's added to the elec-
trical grid can't be earmarked
for any particular home, par-
ticipants can only have the sat-
isfaction of knowing they
helped induce TVA to generate
or buy more of it.
"We just want this to be as
painless as possible to the cus-
tomers, so if they're environ-
mentally sensitive and want to
participate, they can," said
Allen Bradley, power-use engi-
neering manager for Nashville
Electric Service.
The Memphis Light, Gas &
Water Division, TVA's largest
distributor, isn't participating
in the test program. The utility
has cited a variety of concerns
about the initiative, including
whether its costs would burden
nonparticipating customers.
However, if the initiative
grows and becomes perma-
nent, the nonpolluting power
could become available to cus-
tomers locally and throughout
the TVA region.
Along with the solar work,
officials also have been scout-
ing potential wind-power sites.
That effort sustained a setback
last month when complaints
from residents helped nix a
prospective site on Lookout
Mountain near Chattanooga.
Meantime, some of the de-
tails about the green power
program, such as the cost, have
yet to be determined.
Across the valley, utility offi-
cials hope the installation of
the solar panels will get the
public interested in the pro-
gram.
"It's going to be a demonstra-