New energy sources await city residents: MES explores using wind, solar power to help environment
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Called “green power,” the idea is one of the newest programs the utility is offering in conjunction with Tennessee Valley Authority. It is expected to eventually help pave a less costly way for producing and utilizing alternative and environmentally friendly energy sources.
Customers could purchase “blocks” of energy generated by either wind, solar or methane gas. Each block consists of 150 kilowatt hours of electricity and costs $4. That amount of electricity, translated to layman’s terms, would provide between 10 and 15 percent of an average residential customer’s electrical usage a month.
By purchasing the blocks, customers would be helping to generate electricity but that electricity would not come specifically to their own homes..
“They need to understand, and we’ll explain to them when they do that, it doesn’t mean those 150 kilowatt hours are going to come straight to your house,” said general manager Rodney Boyd. “That means they’re being generated and being put on the power grid. Any time you’re doing something new, especially in the area of renewable energy, it’s very expensive, so you’re helping to pay for the research to bring that power cost down in the future.”
MES spokesperson Jane Flatt added the renewable sources of energy are currently being produced in Eastern Tennessee. A wind project, for example, is under way at Buffalo Mountain.
Flatt noted the program is accredited, which means a third party is involved to help ensure green power is produced like it should be and is being placed on the grid.
“It’s for people who really feel strongly and want to help,” said Flatt, noting if one customer purchases two blocks a month for a year, it is equivalent to recycling 480 pounds of aluminum or planting one acre of trees.
“People can choose to take advantage of it, or they can choose not to,” Boyd said. “I think it’s something that’s very beneficial to our customers and to the Tennessee Valley.”
Boyd said the program helps to benefit society by offering an alternative means of producing renewable energy at a time when American’s dependence upon foreign energy is being debated nationally.
“It’s very good when you start talking about that,” he said, adding he sees green power as a benefit for businesses who may want to distinguish themselves as a green power participant.
“A business that wanted to sign up for the green power switch program could market their products as being produced with green power and socially that’s a very good benefit to have on your product,” Boyd said.
MES plans to begin making the program available April 12.