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Chugach Electric Association is working to advance the Fire Island wind power project, located on the southern portion of a 4,000-acre island about two miles offshore from Anchorage in Cook Inlet.
"The economic model is for 50 megawatts of power, but it could support over 100 megawatts," said Steve Gilbert, manager of energy projects development, operation and maintenance at Chugach. "It would be a very valuable resource for the Railbelt."
Currently, three hydroelectric projects provide up to 180 megawatts of power to the railbelt, an interconnected electric grid that stretches from Homer and Seward in the south, through Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna area, up to Fairbanks and Delta Junction. Natural gas, coal and fuel oil generators provide the remaining railbelt power, which totals about 1,374 megawatts.
Chugach, the largest of the six electric utilities on the railbelt, has been studying alternative energy sources for several years, according to Gilbert. Solar, wind and fuel cells have been investigated, and of those, wind appears to be the most viable, he said.
"We've been looking at (Fire Island) since February 2000, so we have a good string of data from the site," Gilbert said. "If you look at aerial photos, you'll see some places that are very wind scoured."
Recently, Anchorage Municipal Light & Power joined Chugach in its support of the Fire Island wind project, signing a memorandum of understanding in early June. Chugach is also working to ink a similar MOU with Fairbanks-based Golden Valley Electric Association, Gilbert said.
The document signing is "a statement of interest, and opens the door for sharing of information, the data and economic studies we've completed," he said. "It opens the door for collaboration ... we'll see if we can jointly develop the project."
Additional studies to consider the island's infrastructure needs and development of a transmission line to connect the wind generators to the Railbelt grid must be completed. "We'll do those studies this year, and see if we can make a development decision later this year," Gilbert said.
The wind project at Fire Island was among other new electric generation sources evaluated in the recently-released Railbelt Energy Study, completed by consultant R.W. Beck. "A modeled 50 (megawatt) wind farm is marginally beneficial," the consultant said in a report summary released to the Alaska Energy Policy Task Force in January. "The estimate does not include the cost to construct a transmission line from Anchorage to Fire Island."
Gilbert declined to release estimated costs associated with the wind project. "It's very preliminary, so I'm hesitant to put a figure out until we have a much better handle on the costs," he said.
But, he added, a large-scale wind project will be cost competitive with existing sources of electric power, although it will require investment in a significant number of the large, 1.5- to 3-megawatt wind turbines. Chugach's current model calls for a minimum of 33 wind turbines, which would generate about 50 megawatts, Gilbert said.
"Building it to that scale, it will come in quite competitive with other sources of generation," he said, compared to Chugach's average electric generation cost of 4.3 cents per kilowatt hour.
The electric utility has considered other sites for wind generators, including Bird Point, overlooking Turnagain Arm. "It is an excellent location but a small one. It would only accommodate a few turbines, so the cost to produce would be higher," Gilbert said.
Chugach has also considered other alternative energy sources, such as solar and fuel cells. The utility recently shut down its 1-megawatt fuel cell project located at the U.S. Post Office in Anchorage, although transmission, gas and telephone connections used in the project have been kept in place, Gilbert said. Chugach is considering operating another fuel cell research project at that location, he said.
"We achieved all the goals and proved a couple of things," he said. "It worked very well. We have nothing more to prove."
Fired by natural gas from Cook Inlet, the generation unit consisted of five solid oxide fuel cells linked together, operating as a single unit. A high-speed switching system connected the fuel cell with the existing power grid, and when the demand from the post office dropped below that generated by the fuel cell, excess power flowed into the grid. Furthermore, the post office equipment was protected from power outages from temporary interruptions from the grid, completing the "seamless transfer" to full reliance on the fuel cell nearly 100 times, Gilbert said.
"The promise of fuel cells is too large to ignore," Gilbert said. "Really, we're playing our part as an operator of a real live electric generating utility to help advance development of the technology."
Chugach has also developed a micro turbine fueled by natural gas, which produces 30 kilowatts of power, enough to power a small office complex, Gilbert said. Spinning at 96,000 revolutions per minute, it's called a micro turbine because of its tiny, hand-held size.
Initially, the unit was tested at the offices of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative in Anchorage. By day, the unit produced part of the electric needs in the building, and at night, surpassed the power needed by the two-story office building and adjoining warehouse facility.
That unit has also been shut down, Gilbert said. "We'd like to find another home for it ... it was part of a national program of 80 that were being tested and it was one of the most successful."
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