Opinion: TVA is right to supercharge renewable energy options with expanded pumped storage

Because of the decrease in fossil fuel plants, an old idea suddenly looks new again in the consideration of power generation for TVA.

The utility has begun to study whether a pumped storage power plant similar to the Raccoon Mountain facility just west of Chattanooga might be feasible for either of two mountain ridges along the Tennessee River in Northeast Alabama. Such a plant would be located at either the closed Widows Creek coal unit near Stevenson, Alabama, or along Rorex Creek near Pisgah, Alabama.