May 14 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Robyn L. Minor The Daily News, Bowling Green, Ky.

The company that was to have supplied power for Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. is looking for sources of renewable power in the area.

East Kentucky Power Cooperative, which currently supplies power to Farmers Cooperative's 23,500 members in Barren, Metcalfe and Hart counties, is looking for the renewable energy. In all, EKPC supplies power to 16 cooperatives with nearly a half million customers.

"This is the first time we have issued a request for proposals specifically for renewable power," said Nick Comer, public and media relations representative.

Comer said about 8 percent of EKPC's power comes from renewable resources, primarily hydroelectric power from the Ohio River, Lake Cumberland and other places.

It also uses methane gas emitted from five landfills in its power area.

"That is a very powerful greenhouse gas," Comer said. Methane is emitted as landfill waste breaks down.

"They are typically small generating facilities -- about 3 megawatts," he said.

The co-op is looking for sources that could generate at least 1 megawatt of power. That power source could include such things as wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, recycled energy or biomass.

Biomass could be wood byproducts turned into fuel or such things as switchgrass, a tall native grass that needs little care.

The cooperative has partnered with the University of Kentucky, which has a group of farmers growing switchgrass. The university is studying what it takes to produce, harvest, store and transport the grass as a potential to grow it for biofuel. For the first few years of the study, the cooperative will use the grass to supplement a coal-fired burner at its Maysville plant, according to Comer.

While preference will be given to proposals within the EKPC service area, others will be considered as well. The RFP is for anyone who already owns or proposes to develop the rights to renewable energy generation.

As the cooperative's power demand increases and its capacity for coal-power generation increases, Comer said the cooperative would at least like to maintain its 8 percent in alternative fuels and perhaps eventually expand it.

To that end, the cooperative this week joined The National Renewables Cooperative Organization. Comer said the organization will help cooperatives like EKPC diversify its generation resources by finding existing renewable projects or developing new ones.

- For more information about supplying renewable power to the cooperative and for an online application, go to www.ekpcrfp.com. The proposals are due by June 30.