Press Mention Knoxville News Sentinel January 13, 2003
SACE Quoted
TVA deal will expand Tennessee wind farm
In this mention
The Tennessee Valley Authority announced an agreement to expand its wind farm on Buffalo Mountain in Anderson County, Tennessee, adding 18 turbines to increase capacity from 1.8 to 28 megawatts. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, praised the expansion as evidence that wind technologies are both feasible and desirable for the Southeast. The project faced opposition from North Carolina officials concerned about environmental impact, but TVA proceeded with the Buffalo Mountain site expansion.
TVA has been a leader in the region with wind power. With this expansion, TVA continues to demonstrate that wind technologies are both feasible and desirable for the Southeast
Stephen A. Smith
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TVA deal will expand Tennessee wind farm
By DUNCAN MANSFIELD Associated Press Writer January 14, 2003
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.- The Tennessee Valley Authority has signed an agreement that will greatly expand its wind power farm on Buffalo Mountain, the public utility said Tuesday.
The country's largest public utility has been operating three wind turbines on Buffalo Mountain, a reclaimed strip mine in Anderson County about 25 miles west of Knoxville, since 2001.
TVA will add another 18 turbines, giving the wind farm a capacity of more than 28 megawatts _ up from 1.8 megawatts. The turbines will add enough wind power to run 4,500 homes.
Invenenergy, a Chicago-based energy development company, will develop, engineer, finance, construct, own and operate the 18 new turbines. They are expected to be in operation in November.
The Anderson County Planning Commission is scheduled to approve the site plan Tuesday night.
Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy watchdog group, praised the move.
"TVA has been a leader in the region with wind power. With this expansion, TVA continues to demonstrate that wind technologies are both feasible and desirable for the Southeast," Smith said.
Smith said that although the TVA project pales compared to large wind farms in the Pacific Northwest, California and Texas, "this is a significant commitment to wind in our region."
Nationally, wind power is the fastest growing electric power source _ outpacing gas turbines, coal plants or nuclear plants, he said. The Energy Department lists 4,558 megawatts of U.S. wind power.
Wind, solar collectors and reclaimed landfill gas power TVA's Green Power Switch alternative energy program. Some 6,000 homes and more than 300 businesses pay a few extra dollars per month to buy this renewable energy from TVA.
TVA looked hard at building a second wind farm on Stone Mountain near Mountain City in northeast Tennessee, close by the Virginia and North Carolina borders, instead of expanding Buffalo Mountain.
But the idea met resistance from some residents and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who said the 375-foot turbines would destroy the "beauty and peacefulness" of the mountains and violate his state's Mountain Ridge Protection Act.
VA met similar opposition from Chattanooga residents when the agency considered a site there before settling on Buffalo Mountain.
Smith said a continuing TVA study suggests the Buffalo Mountain turbines have had little impact on wildlife _ hurting bats more than birds, but neither in significant numbers.
TVA provides electricity to 158 distributors serving 8.3 million people in Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.