Construction of statewide renewable projects heats up: reducing fuel oil use, creating efficiencies, and stabilizing energy costs.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Energy & Power

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The Renewable Energy Fund (REF) helps communities across the state reduce and stabilize the cost of energy. Created by the Legislature in 2008 and extended by ten years in 2012, the fund is managed by the Alaska Energy Authority (AEA). Since 2008, $257 million has been issued to Alaska communities; money that has been matched by millions in funding from local sources.

Noorvik Heat Recovery

This grant consists of $985,805 from Round VI of the Renewable Energy Fund for design and construction of heat recovery project to capture the recovered heat from the existing Noorvik electrical power plant to the water treatment plant. To provide maximum recovered heat benefit, the piping in the water treatment plant needs to be reconfigured, heat exchangers will be added, and other changes to make everything work together.

The project is expected to reduce the fuel oil usage of the facilities by 18,600 gallons, nearly offsetting the total fuel oil usage. The total project cost is $1,015,580 with $29,580 of in-kind contribution provided by Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) as a match. Construction began this summer.

Hiilangaay Hydro (formerly Reynolds Creek)

The grant funds will be used to help build the Hiilangaay Hydroelectric Project near Hydaburg. The project will install a powerhouse, diversion structure, a 3,200-foot penstock with a drop of 750 vertical feet, and twelve miles of 34 kV transmission line to reach Hydaburg. AEA in 2014 approved a $20 million low-interest loan to Haida Energy, Inc. for the project, funding that was supplemented by $8 million in other funding, including a $2 million REF grant to help build the transmission line. The project is expected to be finished in 2018.

Galena Community Wood Heat Project

This project will fund the construction of the biomass fueled district heating loop at the Galena Interior Learning Academy, or GILA. The community currently uses a diesel boiler for the GILA campus; this $3.14 million project includes about $3 million in REF money, plus $47,302 in community match funding. The boiler is expected to displace a total of 230,000 gallons per year of fuel oil, using an estimated 2,950 green tons of chips, or chips with 40 percent moisture content, per year. It would cut the community's cost of providing heat roughly in half. Construction began this summer.

Indian River Hydro

The City of Tenakee Springs, the electric utility provider, will use $2,988,000 from the Round VI Renewable Energy Fund grant, $312,000 of cash matching funds from a legislative grant, and $20,000 of in-kind local matching funds to build a 180 kW run-of-river Indian River Hydroelectric Project in Tenakee Springs. Project features include a concrete diversion structure located near a US Forest Service fish passage facility at the head of falls #4 on Indian River, a 1,534 foot long penstock, a powerhouse located below falls #2, and a new transmission line approximately 1 mile in length to connect to the existing electrical distribution system. The project will be developed on state and city land. The project is estimated to meet approximately 90 percent of the electrical demand of Tenakee Springs and save the community about 6,500 gallons of diesel fuel each year. The project has a total cost of $3.6 million, with nearly $3 million coming from the REF, plus additional funding from the City of Tenakee Springs and the federal Denali Commission. Construction began this summer.

New Stuyahok Heat Recovery

This grant consists of $486,000 from REF for design and construction of a heat recovery project to capture the recovered heat from the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC) power plant cooling system, which will involve installing heat exchangers at the plant and school boiler module with pumps and controls at both sites and about seven hundred feet of underground piping between the two sites. The total project cost is $548,000 with $62,000 of in-kind contribution provided by Southwest Region School District as a match. Construction began this summer.

Kotzebue Wind Farm Expansion

This project expands the installed wind capacity in Kotzebue from 1.14MW to 2.95 MW with the addition of two 900 kW turbines...