wiredinUSA May 2015

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Wind developments
in Tennessee
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is
planning to carry wind energy from
Oklahoma and Texas to the Tennessee
Valley via a 700-mile 4,000MW transmission
line. The developer has spent six years in
planning and seeking regulatory approval
for the $2 billion project, now expected to
take a further three or four years to gain
approval and construction.
TVA’s draft integrated resource plan for
the next 20 years states that under most
scenarios TVA would benefit by importing
1,750MW of wind power from Texas
and Oklahoma, half of the power that
Clean Line Energy LLC wants to bring to
the Tennessee Valley. Prospective wind
power generators in Texas and Oklahoma
have offered over 15,000MW of electricity
generation for Clean Line Energy.
“The wind industry has gotten quite
mature and is better able to capture wind
power to maximize energy output,” said
a TVA spokesman. “We think in today’s
market we can do that for under five
cents per kilowatt hour, which we think will
be the cheapest renewable you can get
and a very interesting option for TVA.”