Wind Power News: Alaska
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These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Fairbanks company to test wind energy in Delta Junction
A Fairbanks-based company is working to prove that a location in Delta Junction is ideal for a wind farm to add electricity into the Alaska Railbelt grid.
Alaska Environmental Power LLC received a grant from the Denali Commission to buy a generator to test a wind generation farm that will be located on a knoll overlooking Delta Junction.
Distributed Energy Systems will provide Alaska Environmental a turbine. The company’s developer has tested the location, wrote a business …
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Energy seekers want wind test at Hatcher Pass
WASILLA — A company that hopes to one day build a wind farm on Fire Island in Anchorage wants a permit to install towers to test the winds at Hatcher Pass.
“This company is wind-prospecting,” said Mike Sullivan, a natural resource manager with the state Department of Natural Resources.
Cook Inlet Region Inc. spokesman Jim Jager said the Hatcher Pass project is in the very early stages of development. It’s one of several wind ideas being working …
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KEA gets $1M for wind project
Kodiak Electric Association’s Pillar Mountain wind generation project is now $1 million closer to a $14 million renewable energy project to offset diesel fuel consumption in Kodiak.
Gov. Sarah Palin recently signed a bill in the 2008 state capital budget to assist KEA in offsetting a portion of the costs for the Pillar Mountain wind project.
Sen. Gary Stevens and Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux helped push the appropriation through as part of a program to lower costs and …
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Fire Island wind project examined
You’ve probably flown over Fire Island dozens of times. It is about three miles southwest of Anchorage, just off the runway at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
Now big changes for the island may be blowing in the wind.
Native corporation Cook Inlet Region Inc. announced today it wants to start a wind farm.
CIRI has formed a partnership with enXco Development Corporation and the companies want to build 20 to 24 wind turbines — Some as tall …
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Chugach balks at wind farm; Cost of project dims luster for this alternative energy
The change in leadership at the state’s biggest electric company late last month has caused the utility to take a more critical look at a wind farm proposed for Anchorage’s Fire Island.
The new majority on Chugach Electric Association’s board campaigned on a cost-savings platform. It is raising questions about whether the wind farm makes financial sense. The project is being planned by Cook Inlet Region Inc. for land the Native corporation owns on the windy …
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Bills promote Fire Island wind farm
Lawmakers proposing to use $24 million to place windmills on Anchorage’s Fire Island are facing opposition from at least one electric company that says such state money would be better spent for more pressing needs.
Companion bills introduced by Sen. Lesil McGuire, R-Anchorage, and Rep. Harry Crawford, D-Anchorage, would allocate money from the state’s Railbelt Energy Fund to a consortium of public utility companies, which would build the transmission lines needed to move wind power generated …
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KEA head says Pillar wind project is safe for birds
The Kodiak Electric Association wind generation project on Pillar Mountain, so far does not put birds in harm’s way.
Both the power company and the Kodiak Audubon Society got together Friday at Kodiak College to discuss progress of KEA’s renewable energy project that ultimately will result in savings to customers and reduce hydrocarbon diesel fuel use and emissions.
“It’s a win, win for all of us,” Darron Scott, KEA chief executive officer, said today.
KEA and the Audubon …
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Wind too much for Unalaska power source
Leaders in a blustery Western Alaska city have stopped studying wind energy as a power source.
The problem? Too much of it.
Unalaska, a city of 4,300, seems tailor-made for the alternative energy. It’s situated in the Aleutian Islands, called the Birthplace of Winds. Powerful tempests brew there when frigid Siberian air collides with much warmer air above Pacific waters, producing major storms striking the West Coast, meteorologists say.
Overall, Alaska has some of the best wind-power potential …
KEA closer to getting wind project off the ground
Kodiak Electric Association’s wind generation project is taking steps toward a naturally driven resource that could move the power company away from the high cost of diesel fuel.
Results of a 10-month study on wind data were analyzed in August and showed KEA is in a favorable position to use wind atop Pillar Mountain.
Darron Scott, KEA chief executive officer, said Wednesday the power company’s wind rank is a 7 on a scale of 1 to 8.
“That …
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