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Feds could help build Healy wind farm Interior Alaska’s GVEA has shovel-ready wind project; Mike Craft looking to supply 100 percent of Fort Greely’s power Christopher Eshleman Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Electric utility managers in Fairbanks say it’s a federal clean energy program that has them poised to build a big wind farm near Healy, Alaska.
The program would repay more than two-thirds of construction costs for a $93 million Eva Creek farm, Golden Valley Electric Association president Brian Newton said May 7.
The utility has weighed the proposed farm for years and recently tested markets for renewable energy aid. Newton said they learned last month the project falls under the federal Clean Renewable Energy Bonds program and would be reimbursed from the federal treasury. They are talking of building the 24 megawatt wind farm immediately.
“It’s a shovel-ready project,” Newton said. “So we could have it up next summer if we really hustle.” He said GVEA directors are waiting for financing details and would then solicit potential builders.
Feds would reimburse GVEA 70% GVEA pitched the financing plan the first week of May, saying the potential aid represents a chance to build the farm without simultaneously putting upward pressure on retail electric prices. Newton said May 7 the federal department would, if GVEA’s plan falls into place, reimburse the utility for 70 percent of its construction loan or bond payments. He said that would carry what would have been a roughly 6 percent interest rate to or below the 2 percent mark.
GVEA had already compiled paperwork for the project in 2009 as it sought help from outlets including the state-based Renewable Energy Fund. Managers then learned they’d qualify for federal aid and have since worked with the Internal Revenue Service to double-check their eligibility, Newton said.
State energy managers assigned the 24 megawatt Eva Creek project a higher score last year than a number of other proposed renewable energy projects, ranking it in the top 20 percent of various pitches from the Interior and Southcentral regions for grants from the Renewable Energy Fund.
Newton said the utility ultimately didn’t get money from that fund but state energy managers’ analysis painted the picture of a viable project sited to enjoy a “better wind resource” than alternatives.
Craft looks to sell power to Fort Greely The utility isn’t the only one talking about wind in the Interior. Developer Mike Craft, who built a single megawatt turbine near Delta Junction, is talking about expanding to 17 megawatts to feed Fort Greely Army post. Craft had previously sought to sell the power to GVEA but said May 7 he’s looking for direct power sales to the military.
Craft’s firm, Alaska Environmental Power, previously applied for aid from the state Renewable Energy Fund but the fund’s managers said a grant would arrive only if GVEA formally agreed to buy the power. They also cautioned, in an Alaska Energy Authority analysis of the project, that Craft’s wind farm might not produce enough power to cover its construction price tag.
No government grants But Craft said by phone that his analysis shows the estimated $34 million project, to be funded without government grants, has proven profitable and he thinks construction could start in 2011. Craft said work crews might start pouring concrete foundations this summer.
“It would make Fort Greely completely carbon free,” he said.
Either project would be a major addition to energy production along Alaska’s road system. A 24 megawatt farm near Eva Creek would represent about one-tenth of GVEA’s power portfolio. Cook Inlet Region Corp. said its proposed Fire Island farm near Anchorage could be twice that size but plans for Eva Creek hold room for a six-fold expansion, or up to 150 megawatts.
Wind power in the United States grew from 2,000 megawatts to 35,000 megawatts — the carbon equivalent of 10.5 million cars off the road — during the past decade according to the federal office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. It has caught on in Alaska, drawing increased focus among utilities, developers and energy research centers here.
The Energy Authority gave Eva Creek’s prospects high marks last year, saying the estimated value of energy production, measured in terms of displaced fuel that the largely oil-dependent GVEA could do without, comes close to $156 million, almost double the construction cost. That analysis was produced before the realization GVEA qualified for the federal renewable subsidies, which one director last week said mesh with general market conditions for a “once in a generation opportunity” to build the wind farm at low costs.
—Distributed by the Associated Press
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