U. of Tennessee students vote for green power
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Students voted to raise their own fees to make the University of Tennessee’s Knoxville campus one of the region’s largest purchasers of clean, renewable energy.
“I think it shows in a huge way that students are willing to pay … to clean the air of Knoxville instead of maybe building a new building,” organizer Rachel Gramig said Thursday.
The initiative could make UT-Knoxville the largest customer of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s “Green Power Switch” program, which is the largest renewable energy program in the Southeast.
Similar student-led initiatives are underway across the state at Vanderbilt University, the University of the South, Middle Tennessee State University and UT-Chattanooga.
“I am aware of more and more activity, not only in our area but across the country,” said Gary Harris, manager of the TVA program, which gets its energy from wind turbines, landfill gases and solar collectors.
“I think students are becoming more aware of the importance of having alternative choices of clean energy. Students now realize this decision is their future.”
By a 4,117 to 3,022 vote tallied Wednesday, students on UT’s main campus agreed to an $8 per semester hike in their $150-$200 per semester fees to support alternative energy.
Half of the fees would be used to buy blocks of TVA green power from the local power company, the Knoxville Utilities Board. The rest would go to energy efficiency improvements on campus.
TVA sells green power in 150-kilowatt-hour blocks at $4 each — saving the equivalent of 3,600 pounds of coal from burning into the atmosphere.
UT-Knoxville, an early “Green Power Switch” supporter, buys 375 blocks of renewable energy each month, costing about $18,000 a year.
With the student fee, UT-Knoxville’s green power budget would climb to more than $200,000 a year — enough to buy nearly 4,500 green power blocks or some 635,000 kilowatt hours worth.
That would surpass TVA’s largest green power customer, Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores, which collectively buys a little more than 3,000 blocks a year.
“I am definitely thrilled. We have worked on this campaign since last September,” Gramig said. “We know we have a whole lot ahead of us.”
The fee still must be approved by the UT Board of Trustees and the Legislature as part of the university’s budget.
Nick Algee, campus coordinator with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the UT initiative is part of a movement.
“This is just the beginning,” he said.
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TVA Green Power: http://www.tva.gov/greenpowerswitch/index.htm
University of Tennessee: http://www.utk.edu/
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy: http://www.cleanenergy.org/