BusinessTN

Johnson City was green before it was cool to be green, according to Phil Pindzola, Johnson City's public works director.

"When we got involved in recycling 20 years ago, we were the first county in the state of Tennessee to institute a curbside recycling program," Pindzola points out. "When we had to raise water and sewer rates in order to fund a necessary cleanup of our rivers and streams, the public accepted it. There was virtually no opposition to a storm water utility fee. Our 'Gas to Energy' program has been replicated all across the country. We have award-winning treatment plants. Wind power is simply another of our progressive initiatives in Washington County."

The Gas to Energy program was both a revenue measure for the county, as well as an environmental initiative. Two years ago, Johnson City and Energy Systems Group built a four-mile pipeline from the Iris Glen Environmental Center to the Veterans Affairs Medical Center's Mountain Home campus, which also houses the East Tennessee State University medical and pharmacy schools. The methane gas from the landfill powers turbines that create electricity on the campus. Recently, Johnson City entered into a contract with Energy Systems Group to retrofit all the buildings on the Veterans Affairs campus to make them more energy efficient.

The recycling program was put into place 20 years ago after an overwhelming public response to a survey about recycling. It is, Pindzola says, as progressive as long-running programs in the West with regard to revenue streams. (One of the peripheral activities of the recycling program is a process in which all wood chippings are used to create fuel for a company in Kingsport.)

In July 2010, Franklin Woods Community Hospital will open its doors as the state's first certifiably "green" hospital, with an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient design that incorporates energy and water conservation as key elements.

With these initiatives and many others in place, it is only natural that wind would be the most recent green-energy possibility under consideration in Washington County and Johnson City. Several years ago, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) became the facilitator of a Department of Energy group called Wind Powering America. The SACE is the only regional organization primarily focused on developing clean energy solutions throughout the Southeast.

Brandon Blevins, the coordinator of the Wind Program, credits the proactive spirit of the citizens of Johnson City for embracing the possibilities of wind energy. "In 2005, we held workshops in the windier regions of Tennessee, particularly East Tennessee and along the Cumberland Plateau. We offer a free program to test wind, and Johnson City took advantage of that."

The study in Johnson City, which involves an anemometer loan program that outfits tall towers with wind-monitoring and wind speed-measuring equipment, is in its preliminary phases. "The study will be done as a partnership between Johnson City, the SACE, and a contracted tower climber," Pindzola says. "We've ordered the equipment, which will be placed on a city-owned cell-phone tower. We'll utilize one of our existing towers, a 250-foot-high tower, on our 4,500-foot-high Buffalo Mountain, which overlooks Johnson City." The study will take a year.

According to Pindzola, the average home uses about 12,000 kilowatts of power per year, and the average wind turbine can produce 1.5 megawatts, enough energy to power approximately 130 homes for a year.

"We want to look at every aspect of utilizing wind power," Pindzola says, "including revenue streams, generation rates, design and aesthetics. We'll take all of the information gathered from the testing and see how we can add wind power to our already impressive green-energy initiatives."

The tests are always performed in partnership with landowners or organizations, and Blevins credits East Tennessee State University for jump-starting the current interest in wind power. Students pay a "green fee" of $5 per semester, and those fees go toward the purchase of green power, funding renewable energy, and studying and
facilitating energy-efficient processes on the campus.

In late 2004, the Tennessee Valley Authority implemented wind energy as a major source of power for Green Power Switch, a program created to produce electricity from renewable sources. Fifteen new turbines were added to three smaller turbines already in place at a site on the Buffalo Mountain, near Oak Ridge. These new turbines increased energy production to 29 megawatts, or enough to power approximately 3,800 homes.

"We have a progressive community tucked up here in Northeast Tennessee," Pindzola says. "Our folks are environmentally aware, and if we promote programs that are good for the environment, the people run with them. It's a green culture."

If the Buffalo Mountain program goes well, Johnson City will be a windy culture, as well.