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JEA Takes Part in Nebraska Wind Farm Project for Green Power Credit
Jacksonville, FL (December 27, 2004) - To help the utility meet a voluntary goal to attain 7.5 percent of its electric generating capacity from renewable resources by 2015, JEA has signed an agreement with the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) to purchase 10 megawatts of power from a new 60 megawatt wind facility in Nebraska.
"Although JEA will sell the power back to NPPD, we will receive environmental credits for the green power our investment generates, and it also shows JEA's commitment to promote wind development in the United States," said JEA CEO Jim Dickenson. "Once the wind farm is operational in 2005, JEA will have one of the most diversified power generating systems in Florida and the Southeast."
In addition to JEA, Omaha Public Power District of Omaha, The Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska and the City of Grand Island, Nebraska will also be using some of the wind farm's power output.
The proposed design for the $81 million facility includes the construction of 36 wind turbines, producing 1.65 megawatts of power each. The turbine rotor blades, 269 feet in diameter, would sit at the top of 230-foot, tubular steel towers. The renewable energy facility will produce no emissions.
The location for the wind facility was selected, in part, for its wind availability, where wind speeds average about 19 miles-per-hour. JEA determined Florida does not have the sustained wind speeds to make such a facility a cost-effective alternative in the state.
JEA is already among the top utility producers of solar power nationwide, bringing 218 kilowatts of solar power on line since launching its solar initiative in 1999 and receiving credit for 8,200 kilowatts being generated through a Solar Incentive Program established in 2002.
Working in partnership with the state's rural public power districts, cooperatives and municipalities, NPPD helps serve an estimated 800,000 Nebraskans with retail or wholesale electric power and energy-related products and services.
JEA is the eighth largest community-owned electric utility in America, providing electric, water and sewer services to more than 750,000 accounts in Northeast Florida.
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