Wind Farm in Cook Inlet

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/15/1530040/energy-alternatives-outlined-for.html

Energy alternatives outlined for Alaska legislators

By Richard Mauer

The Anchorage Daily News

JUNEAU — With some legislators fuming over the pace of in-state gas development and broadly supporting energy diversification, a special House committee summoned the promoters of six large Railbelt projects last week to explain themselves and whether they should be subsidized with public funds.

One of the projects -- a wind farm already under construction by Cook Inlet Region Inc. on Fire Island -- is poised to change Anchorage's view to the west and the approach to the city's international airport. The Anchorage Native corporation, owner of the island, plans to prepare sites for 36 wind turbines this summer and have the project in operation by the end of 2011.

Ethan Schutt, a senior vice president at CIRI, told the House Special Committee on Energy that the wind farm is projected to generate as much as 54 megawatts of power. That's enough electricity for about 18,000 homes and a little bit more than the capacity of the natural gas turbines at Chugach Electric Association's International Airport Road power plant in Anchorage, a relatively inefficient 1960s facility now used mainly for backup.

Three other proposed projects, all in early stages of development with no guarantees they will become operational, are near the flanks of Mount Spurr, the active volcano 75 miles west of Anchorage:

• Ormat Technologies Inc. of Reno, Nev., wants to tap directly into the volcano, drawing heat from water brought to the surface and converting it to electricity in on-site turbines. It would generate 50 to 100 megawatts.

WIND ENERGY

CIRI is investing in innovation, technology and a diverse portfolio of clean, dependable and economic energy options, including wind power.

FIRE ISLAND

A photo simulation demonstrates a possible wind farm on Fire Island. Image courtesy of Chugach Electric Association.

CIRI is developing Alaska's first commercial-scale wind energy project on company land on Fire Island, in Cook Inlet just west of Anchorage.

Southcentral Alaska uses natural gas to generate more than 90 percent of its electricity. However, Cook Inlet gas reserves are running out. Clean, renewable wind energy could diversify Railbelt power resources, which would increase reliability and decrease ratepayers' vulnerability to gas shortages and price increases.

The project is expected to include 36 turbines capable of producing 54 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 19,000 homes.

Site preparation on Fire Island is underway, with infrastructure work to commence in 2010.

The location was initially selected by Chugach Electric Association as a site that could provide commercial quantities of electric power to key load centers on the Railbelt grid.

WHY WIND?

- Wind energy is renewable, so it won't run out
- The long-term cost of wind-generated electricity is cheaper and more predictable than fossil-fuel powered sources
- Wind power reduces greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts
- Wind power could offset the need to burn natural gas, so that Cook Inlet oil and gas reserves would last longer
- Using wind energy locally could let the state take full advantage of escalating petroleum prices by selling more Alaska oil and gas to the rest of the world
- Alaska wind energy resources would be built and operated in-state by Alaskans

http://www.ciri.com/content/company/FireIsland.aspx