A light that switches on in East Tennessee is powered, in part, by the wind blowing 500 miles away in Central Illinois.
That region of the Midwest is flat, farming country which is rich in a natural resource -- wind. One-hundred-fifty giant turbines sprout from the ground. It's the Streator Cayuga- Ridge Wind Farm in O'Dell, Illinois.
The Portland, Oregon based company, Iberdrola, built and maintains the wind farm. It and the Tennessee Valley Authority signed a 20 year contract for TVA to purchase the power generated at the wind farm. Supervisor Dale Thomas says it can produce up to 300 megawatts of electricity.
"We put the power out on the big grid and people in Tennessee are pulling off what they need and staying warm and happy."
Here's how the wind power in Illinois ends up as electricity in East Tennessee homes and beyond. The turning blades of the turbines create volts of electricity which travel through power lines and eventually end up on the power grid that serves the Southeast region. TVA takes off the grid exactly the amount of electricity the Streator- Cayuga Ridge Wind Farm puts on the grid.
Chris Hansen, TVA Power Origination General Manager, said that means the power provider can pull back on other energy sources like coal and natural gas.
"For every bit of energy that is ejected here, we are withdrawing that same amount of energy in the Valley to serve 60,000 homes."
The Streator- Cayuga Ridge Wind Farm is just the start for TVA. It plans to purchase more wind power from farms in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Kansas by 2012.