A conversion plant in Carnesville is expected to begin producing electricity this fall using chicken litter from north Georgia poultry farms. It's a project of Green Power EMC, a consortium of EMCs around the state, which had hoped to have the plant up and running by this summer.

Green Power EMC President Michael Whiteside, appearing on Sunday's Northeast Georgia This Week on WDUN NEWS TALK 550, said plant will produce the largest amount of electricity of the three renewable energy projects the consortium currently has on line.

"It will produce 20 megawatts of electricity at full capacity," said Whiteside, who is also President and CEO of Coweta-Fayette Electric Membership Corporation.

Whiteside said some EMCs are already are able to secure electricity for their customers through other alternative forms of energy such as biomass and low-impact hydro plants. "Methane gas from landfills in Taylor and Fayette counties is being used to produce electricity (a total of five megawatts between them)," he said, "and a low-impact hydro plant on the Middle Oconee River is generating 2.3 megawatts of electricity."

Whiteside said a low-impact hydro plant is a small hydro-electric dam on a river that uses water flow from the river - not releases from a large reservoir such as Lake Lanier - to generate electricity. He said how much power is generated is determined by the stream flow, noting that it times of drought, less power can be produced because the amount and the flow of water is impacted by the dry conditions.