While Alabama Power made headlines last year with agreements to purchase wind power from Oklahoma and Kansas, a new company — Pioneer Green Energy, based in Texas — has announced plans to build a wind farm in Etowah and Cherokee counties, near Gadsden, and the Tennessee Valley Authority has announced plans to purchase that home-farmed wind power.
The Shinbone Wind Energy Center is expected to produce and sell about 18 megawatts of power to TVA — equivalent to about half the energy used in Cherokee County now, according to Clean Energy.
Pioneer Green Energy estimates the wind farm will cost $120 million to build.
TVA already owns several wind generators in Tennessee.
Alabama Power’s agreement to purchase 404 megawatts of wind power made it a leader in the Southeast. The utility gets renewable energy credits for the wind power purchase, which it can keep or sell to other utilities.
Nedra Bloom
