Wind energy might become a future reality here in northeast Tennessee given the advances in equipment and increasing push for alternative energy sources.

What that future might be like was the topic at a question-and- answer session and workshop sponsored on campus in mid-November by the ETSU student group, the Initiative for Clean Energy (ICE).

The discussion was led by Brandon Blevins and Hilary Dixson of the Tennessee Wind Working Group, a Department of Energy- funded program administered by the state of Tennessee’s Economic and Community Development Energy Office.

The forum leaders explained current wind energy practices such as necessary wind speed and consistency and the elevation of wind turbines. But the main topic, and most important, was the discussing of the feasibility of wind turbines right here in northeast Tennessee.

“I had always heard that this area was not good for wind,” Moore said. But with newer equipment and turbines there is a lower wind requirement to generated sufficient energy to sustain a wind turbine, participants were told.

Even with new equipment, there are still some minimum requirements. “You have to be over 3,000 feet to have a really good wind power site,” O’Donnell noted.

What could make this very interesting, aside from the potential benefits to area residents, is the possibility of ETSU student involvement with the research work that the Tennessee Wind Working Group is trying to get under way. The Group is still trying to work out an agreement to put wind monitoring devices atop Buffalo Mountain to see the suitability of the mountain for wind energy generation.

With these monitoring devices in place, the hope is to involve ETSU students in facilitating the measuring. “I am encouraged that there is a good possibility that ETSU students will be involved in this project,” Moore said.

The forum drew around 40 people, with a few students and mostly the local public. “I was surprised by the interest from the general community,”Moore said. “There is a definite interest in wind power for individual homes.” O’Donnell also resonated the need and want for wind energy in northeast Tennessee, as he stated, “We should have all of Holston Mountain lined with turbines.”

The wind group was co-founded in 2004 by TVA and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in partnership with the state. It, in turn, has joined a national network of state Wind Working Groups that are part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind Powering America program.