The Tennessee Valley Authority is seeking public comments on its draft Environmental Assessment of a wind power purchase agreement with the proposed Caney River Wind Project LLC in Elk County, Kan.
TVA contracted with the Kansas project to buy up to 201 megawatts of wind power for a 20-year period. The project would consist of 111 wind turbines on about 14,000 acres of land. Generation is expected to begin in 2012.
The purchase is contingent upon completion of a review of the potential environmental impacts of the construction and operation of the project.
"TVA is working to achieve its vision to be one of the nation's leading contributors of low-cost, cleaner energy," Anda Ray, senior vice president of Environment and Technology, said. "Increasing our wind portfolio, among other actions TVA is taking, will help us continue to move in that direction."
Comments may be submitted directly or more information obtained at the TVA website www.tva.com/environment/reports.
Comments also can be mailed to: Tennessee Valley Authority (Attn: Bruce Yeager), 400 West Summit Hill Drive, WT 11-D, Knoxville, Tenn. 37902-1499; e-mail: blyeager@tva.gov; or fax: (865) 632-3451, through Nov. 11, 2010. TVA will consider these comments in finalizing the environmental assessment and making its decision.
With this project, TVA will have added up to 1,581 megawatts of wind power resources to its generation portfolio since issuing a request for proposals in December 2008 for as much as 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy.
TVA's current renewable energy mix totals 4,443 megawatts from hydroelectric, wind, solar and methane sources. In addition, TVA's nuclear plants contribute 6,900 megawatts of emission-free electricity to the power grid.