A sudden rise in demand and drop in supply of natural gas has put a new spin on the world’s energy needs. Increasingly, communities and private and public utilities are looking to wind, solar, water and nuclear generation as ways to cope with both volatile fossil fuel markets and consumers grown accustomed to flipping switches.

&uot;People in general don’t like to see new plant construction, but they want to see that power flowing,&uot; said Kelle Barfield, director of generation communications for Entergy.

Entergy, supplying electricity to parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, uses a mix of fuels to generate electricity in its four-state area.

However, in recent months the nuclear plant at St. Francisville, La., was upgraded, and permission was granted by the Mississippi Public Service Commission to build a new cooling tower at the Grand Gulf plant at Port Gibson.

&uot;The auxiliary tower will allow us to run at 100 percent power throughout the summer,&uot; said Jill Smith, communications specialist at Grand Gulf.

&uot;We’ll be able to produce more megawatts in the summer when demand for electricity goes up.&uot;

Construction on the new forced draft cooling tower will begin in February and continue into 2002.

Entergy also operates hydroelectric plants in Texas and Arkansas. Solar and wind power are not now in the company’s mix.

Other Texas companies are poised to take advantage of the rapid growth of wind power.

&uot;Texas has the second-most wind energy potential among all the states,&uot; said Mike Kotara, director of marketing for City Public Service in San Antonio.

&uot;We are receiving wind energy today and offer this as ‘windtricity’ to our retail customers,&uot; Kotara said.

The wind-generated energy is not cheaper, he said. &uot;But our customers feel good about choosing this type of electricity.&uot;

Hundreds of wind farms are under construction in West Texas, Kotara said. &uot;Where you might expect to see oil derricks, you’re now seeing windmills,&uot; he said.

San Antonio, with about 550,000 electric customers and 305,000 natural gas customers, also is negotiating a contract for electricity generated from landfill gas.

&uot;A third party comes in and builds a gas-collection system and runs the gas generated by the landfill through an electricity generator,&uot; Kotara said.

A major solar energy program was initiated by the U.S. Department of Energy in 1997. Called &uot;The Million Solar Roofs&uot; program, it sets a goal for a million solar systems on a million rooftops throughout the United States by 2010.

Organizers have begun working with builders, local governments, state agencies, solar industry leaders, electricity providers and non-government agencies.

Still, natural gas is a major fuel for electricity in Texas as it is elsewhere, Kotara said.

At Natchez’s Callon Petroleum, now busily exploring in the Gulf of Mexico to supply natural gas to a hungry market, no plans exist to move to different fields.

&uot;We are experienced in natural gas and see adequate opportunities there,&uot; said John Weatherly, senior vice president and chief financial officer. &uot;There’s no reason for us to enter other areas of energy exploration.&uot;

The future may bring new sources of energy, Weatherly said.

&uot;One day there may be other sources such as solar, but I think they have a way to go before they are economical ways to generate energy.&uot;

Michael Callahan, Southern District commissioner for Mississippi’s Public Service Commission, said rising demands probably one day will result in new ways to generate power such as solar and wind power, which are growing in popularity in other parts of the country.

&uot;As for alternate sources, no one is doing it here,&uot; Callahan said. &uot;But maybe one day some of these alternate ways will be efficient.&uot;

In fact, Callahan said, he can foresee some incredible strides in the power field in the not too distant future.

&uot;At some point I believe we’ll have something like a miniature nuclear power plant attached to the company or home.

&uot;When you need a new fuel cell, you’ll go to Wal-Mart and buy it and take it home and plug it in,&uot; Callahan said.

In fact, maybe a round of new nuclear plants is not out of the question, said Entergy’s Barfield.

Environmental and safety concerns led to costly regulations and put a damper on nuclear plant construction after the accident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

Yet advocates of nuclear energy continue to tout its environmental safety.

What’s more, nuclear energy is one of the workhorses of electricity providers such as Entergy, said Betty Gavora, senior communications specialist for fossils at Entergy.

The other is coal, a fossil fuel like oil and gas. Entergy’s coal plants, located in Arkansas and Louisiana, provide electricity throughout the four-state area.

&uot;Our plants use clean-burning sub-bituminous coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming,&uot; Gavora said. &uot;It comes in by rail cars.&uot;

Entergy’s coal plants are a new generation of plants, built in the 1980s to be environmentally compliant.

Additionally, the coal plants market about 65 percent of the ash waste product produced at the plants.

Waste that is not marketed is stored on site, Gavora said.