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Energy options for rural communities Developers of tidal, river-current and wave-action power generation systems see commercial opportunities in remote Alaska communities Alan Bailey Petroleum News
Given the high cost of conventional energy supplies such as diesel fuel in rural communities, emerging technologies involving the harnessing of natural water power from tides, ocean waves and river currents are economically attractive in many parts of Alaska, developers of these types of system told the Business of Clean Energy in Alaska Conference on May 1.
Referred to in general as “hydrokinetics,” there are a variety of technologies that convert the natural energy of flowing or undulating water into electrical power. But these technologies are in their infancy. And, with high up-front implementation costs, they can struggle to compete on cost with conventional energy sources in major power grid settings.
Market in Alaska But there is a market for these technologies in rural Alaska, Monty Worthington, director of project development for Ocean Renewable Power Co., or ORPC, told the conference. ORPC is in the process of shipping a water turbine system to Alaska, for testing power generation for the village of Igiugig, at the southwestern end of Lake Iliamna, using water flow in the Kvichak River that flows out of the lake.
An in-current turbine generation system of this type works somewhat like an underwater windmill, converting river or tidal flow into power in a similar manner to power generation in a wind farm.
The hydrokinetics industry, although nascent, is developing rapidly, learning some lessons from the wind energy industry, Worthington commented. ORPC has recently implemented a tidal power system in Maine, using in-current turbines — this is the first power-grid-connected system of its type in the Americas, Worthington said.
Exportable knowledge Jeremy Kasper, assistant director of the Alaska Hydrokinetic Energy Research Center in the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told the conference that, with the attractive economics in remote rural areas, Alaska is at the forefront of adopting hydrokinetic technologies, with knowledge gained from implementation of these systems becoming exportable to other parts of the world.
The Hydrokinetic Energy Research Center has, for example, been developing and testing ways of diverting river debris from turbine systems — the diversion of debris away from turbine blades is essential in making river deployment of the technology viable, Kasper said.
Cook Inlet tides When it comes to the energy inherent in tidal currents, the massive tides of Alaska’s Cook Inlet represent a world-class resource. And ORPC Alaska has been working with Homer Electric Association, a local electric utility, on the potential development of an in-current tidal power system at East Foreland, on the west coast of the Kenai Peninsula. But, in the absence of funding incentives that would create a necessary technology incubator environment, Cook Inlet tidal power cannot currently compete on cost with the relatively cheap power already available in the Alaska Railbelt, Worthington said.
“So, while we have this incredible resource, we don’t really have the market conditions to attract a large-scale tidal energy development in Cook Inlet at this time,” he said.
Worthington later told Petroleum News that ORPC plans to continue the venture at East Foreland with Homer Electric but that, at present, there is no firm timeframe for a demonstration or pilot project. To date, the project has involved, in conjunction with the Alaska Energy Authority and the University of Alaska Anchorage, the measurement and modeling of the East Foreland tidal resource.
ORPC is currently using the East Foreland site as a test location for its in-river turbine technology, Worthington said.
False Pass ORPC has also turned its attention to the possibility of installing a tidal power system in False Pass, a relatively narrow sea channel between the first of the Aleutian Islands and the western end of the Alaska Peninsula. The local False Pass community currently uses power that costs somewhere in the range 36 to 42 cents per kilowatt hour, and there is a seafood processing facility that could potentially bring a commercial demand that would provide economies of scale, Worthington said.
A group that includes the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, the city of False Pass and ORPC is currently assessing the tidal resource and developing a project plan that minimizes financial risk, he said.
Igiugig river turbine The turbine that ORPC is shipping to Alaska for the in-river test at Igiugig is essentially a prototype system. The plan is to install the turbine device in the Kvichak River and operate it between mid-July and mid-September this year, removing the device before the winter ice sets in, Worthington explained. The Alaska Energy Authority is involved in the project, he said.
The project team wants to demonstrate that a device can be safely and successfully deployed, operated over a reasonable amount of time and then retrieved — success this summer would lead to phase two of the project, a commercial operation, Worthington said.
Yakutat wave power Bill Staby, founder and CEO of Resolute Marine Energy, a company developing wave energy technology, told the conference about his company’s project to develop a wave energy system along the shore at Yakutat. The company’s system involves seafloor-mounted hinged flaps that move with the waves. The company has obtained a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permit for a wave-energy system in a 24-square-mile area along the coast.
Staby said that his company needs to conduct environmental studies in the proposed site, in part to clarify the details of the system design, such as the locations for the placement of the seafloor devices. Current estimates suggest that the system could support 450 kilowatts out of Yakutat’s roughly 600- to 700-kilowatt electricity load, Staby said. The company is still refining the economics of the project but currently projects a cost of about 26 cents per kilowatt hour for its power output. That compares with the 50 to 60 cents per kilowatt hour that Yakutat residents currently pay for their electricity — the city entirely depends on diesel power generation, Staby said.
“By September of 2015 we expect to be deploying the first of the wave energy converters,” he said.
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