TVA buys more wind power, plans for future with renewables

[bananas]

Source: Chattanooga Times Free Press

TVA is sniffing the wind and making some baby steps we hope will grow to have giant footprints.

This month, the utility that serves seven states began tilting for windmills -- not against them.

The Tennessee Valley Authority this month signed nine contracts with wind farms in Iowa, Kansas and Illinois. That wind power will generate 1,542 megawatts of energy in the Tennessee Valley, adding to the 27 megawatts already made in Tennessee at the utility's Buffalo Mountain, the first and only commercial, utility-scale wind farm in the Southeast.

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For years, TVA seemed bent on ignoring the air and carbon problems its coal-heavy power generation created. The utility skirted some federal regulations for cleaner air, claiming its aging plants were grandfathered in under "best-technology" rules. Finally in 2011, TVA agreed to retire 18 older coal-fired units at three plants to settle environmental lawsuits with several states and environmental groups.

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Read more: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/oct/30/tilting-for-windmillstva-buys-more-wind-power/

[Cryptoad]

1. Glad to see

TVA changing course, and does anybody else see the irony in Most of the Super Red States enjoying that cheap "socialist" energy?

[yourpicturehere]

3. CHEAP?!?!?!

The (un)cooperative that we belong to gets its power from TVA and we have some of the highest electric bills around. In addition, the power goes off for NO reason (perfectly sunny day, no wind) which is a great way to nudge up those bills even more. The people at the co-op keep saying that the squirrels are shutting the power off but there are no piles of dead squirrels anywhere. My husband and I have a joke that when the power goes off at night that it is one of those rare perching bats...

After the '09 ice storm we had no power for 17 days. My husband had to call the COO of the power company to get the repair crews to come put a fucking telephone pole in my yard so we could have power.

I called the PSC once to complain and was told that they have no power over my co-op cos it's TVA...that's depressing.

A few years back, the co-op put up a tiny little solar array and informed us that we could have solar power but IT WOULD COST MORE!!!!! (Not shouting, just irritated). They also say that we cannot hook up a windmill to the grid, just solar.

All this after living in a big city where the power never went off and after the '74 tornadoes, which caused massive destruction, we were only w/o power for THREE days.

Yeah, TVA is blast. Can't wait to see what buying power from other states windmills is gonna cost. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to have renewable energy, but I have a feeling that the electric bills are gonna get even higher.

Oh, this is also happening after we had letter sent to us complaining that the federal gov't wanted to "experiment" with renewables and that it would make us pay more and it was UNFAIR!!!! Guess they changed their minds?

[Cryptoad]

4. Funny,, grinding the wrong ax ,,,,

sounds like you have coop problems, not TVA problems,, TVA does not own coops..... I live in the TVA and our electricity is and has always been cheaper than surrounding areas not within the TVA with their own power supplies....have you been to your coop meetings and complained?

[liberal N proud]

2. Significant change