Doyon installing North Slope wind turbines

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

Doyon Ltd., the Native regional corporation for the Fairbanks region, has announced that it is installing two 100-kilowatt wind turbines on Doyon Drilling's pad in Deadhorse on the North Slope. The turbines will supplement power supplies for Doyon Drilling, thus offsetting some of the company's electricity supplies from other sources. Doyon Drilling provides drilling services to oil companies operating on the North Slope.

"This project is the first of its kind on the North Slope," said Andrew J. Honea, Doyon Drilling president and general manager. "I'm proud that Doyon Drilling is part of this monumental milestone."

"It's wonderful to see this project come to life," said Tanya Kaquatosh, Doyon Ltd. senior vice president of administration. "The wind turbine project is part of Doyon's sustainability initiative and aligns directly with our corporate value of long-term sustainability."

Doyon says that wind data for the area where the turbines are being installed indicate that it should be possible to obtain a combined average daily output of 1,440 kilowatt hours from the turbines. This is equivalent to the use of 100 gallons of fuel for diesel generated power and would eliminate the greenhouse gas emissions from this amount of diesel generation, Doyon says.

--ALAN BAILEY