October 2005

Green Power Sprouting All Over

As promised, our green power program continues to grow.

As a member of Green Power EMC, a group of 28 Georgia EMCs bringing green power to their customer-owners, Walton EMC is able to offer a green alternative. For only $2.95 extra a month, you can sponsor a 150 kilowatt-hour block of green energy.

Green energy is electricity produced from more environmentally friendly sources, like landfill methane, solar, wind and low-impact hydro.

A kilowatt-hour is the unit we use to measure electricity consumption. A 150 kilowatt-hour block is the amount of energy it takes to run two refrigerators for one month.

Each kilowatt-hour you sponsor through our green power program is one kilowatt-hour that doesn't have to be produced using traditional means, like coal or natural gas.

By Land

Our first efforts, now two years old, involve making electricity from trash.

Methane gas is a natural product of landfill garbage decay. If this gas is not allowed to escape, dangerous conditions develop from explosion hazards. Landfills install piping to bring this methane to the surface, where it's usually burned off to the atmosphere.

Green Power EMC, through its generating contractor, captures this gas and uses it to fuel electric generators. The otherwise-wasted methane is now tapped as an energy source.

There are two landfill sites generating green power, one in Taylor County and one in Fayette County. A possible expansion at the Taylor County site may make even more green power available.

By Sun

The newest effort to bring green power to EMC customer-owners involves energy from the sun.

SunPower for Schools is a partnership between local EMCs, Green Power EMC and schools. One-kilowatt solar arrays are being given to several high schools throughout Georgia to produce electricity and enhance classroom instruction.

The first solar electricity from this program was produced August 29 at Irwin County High School. Walton EMC is also at the front of the solar effort.

The third panel was installed in WEMC's service territory at Oconee County High School in Watkinsville on September 13.

The partnership means students will not only be able to see a real solar array; they'll also have access to data from the panels to use as real-life study aid in science and math classes.

By Water

The program adds electricity generated by low-impact hydropower to the green power mix this month.

The Tallassee Shoals Hydroelectric Project on the Middle Oconee River, just a few miles from Walton EMC's service territory, is due to come on line shortly. It will generate over 1.5 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity every month.

Though the plant is just coming on line, it's been around for a long time. The original facility was built on the same site in 1902 to supply electricity to the Athens Railway and Electric Company. Other owners operated the plant until it became uneconomical in 1964.

In 1982, Oglethorpe Power Corporation bought the site and built a new facility that began producing electricity in 1986. During construction, OPC took special precautions to protect the environment around the site. Economic conditions made selling the plant a prudent move in 2003.

The new owners are making improvements to put the plant back in operation. Since the facility has existed in one form or another for over a century, it's considered to have a low-impact on the river in its present state.

By Air

Wind is free. Generating electricity from wind produces no byproducts. And Green Power EMC is studying a Northwest Georgia mountain for a possible wind generating site.

A 200-foot test tower is collecting wind speed and direction data atop Rocky Mountain in Floyd County. The test will run for 12 months, resulting in wind profiles that will determine if it makes sense to install a wind turbine.

Wind speeds must average 15 miles per hour over the year for wind generation to work. For the first two months of the test, July and August, speeds averaged eight to nine miles per hour.

But experts say that the middle of the summer is when wind blows least. Overall speeds will increase over the fall, winter and spring.  But the jury is still out on whether the potential exists for small-scale wind generation in Georgia.

Wind generation is found on large scales in the Midwestern and Western United States.

By Chickens?

Green Power EMC is looking at every possibility to produce more power. Private companies have trials underway in Northeast Georgia to use chicken litter to power electric generating plants. If the trials are successful, GPEMC may negotiate to get this renewable fuel into its green power mix.

Using chicken litter would not only help the environment by generating green electricity; it may also provide a solution to the growing problem of disposing of wastes from poultry production.

What You Can Do

Now is the time to join this exciting program that helps the environment. You can sponsor one block of green power each month for less than a dime a day. Dig through the couch and easy chair- cushions–you'll probably find enough change to participate.

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