WILL TENNESSEE PICK NEW ENERGY OR NAT GAS?

TVA board to pick wind, solar or natural gas to replace Allen plant being shuttered in Memphis

Dave Flessner, August 7, 2014 (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

“The Tennessee Valley Authority will continue to move away from the coal-fired generation that once supplied most of its power when it likely shuts down the Allen Steam Plant in Memphis by 2018…[TVA's staff claims the lowest-cost replacement option would be] a natural gas plant, which is projected to cost anywhere from $500 million to $1.3 billion…[T]he federal utility is obligated to pick the cheapest replacement power that complies with environmental and other rules…[The Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club] questions whether natural gas will be less expensive than renewable sources over the long run…[and] is urging TVA to buy into a 3,500-megawatt wind power connection coming to Memphis by a Houston company known as Clean Line Energy Partners. The $2 billion project would carry wind-generated power from windmills in Texas and Oklahoma over a 700-mile, direct-current line into the Tennessee Valley…TVA contends that wind is too variable…But [Sierra Club says] the winds being tapped in the Great Plains are more steady and could be supplemented with more solar power and with some limited gas-fired generation in the Memphis area…” click here for more

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