Alaska Power & Telephone to Receive $3m USDA Grant to Construct 1.8 MW Wind Project Near Tok, Alaska
Alaska
Power & Telephone is pleased to announce that it was selected by
the US Department of Agriculture to receive $3,000,000 in grant funds
through the High
Energy Cost Grant Program to construct a 1.8 megawatt wind farm in
interior Alaska.
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7-Mile Ridge vicinity near Tok, Alaska. (Photo: Business Wire)
The 7-Mile Wind project will be a 1.8 MW Wind farm, located in a Class-4
Wind area adjacent the Glenn Highway, near the community of Tok, Alaska.
The 7-Mile Wind project will assist the communities of Tok, Tetlin, Dot
Lake, and Tanacross by providing a locally-available source of cleaner,
more affordable renewable energy. At present, these four communities
have been 100% dependent upon diesel-based generation of electricity,
and experience energy costs which in recent years have been higher than
$0.50 per kilowatt hour. Approximately 1,500 residents live within the
communities which will benefit from the 7-Mile Wind project.
7-Mile Wind is anticipated to produce over 3.7 million kilowatt hours of
home-sourced renewable energy per year. For perspective, the US
EIA reports that the average US household consumes 911 kWh per
month. The project is estimated to offset over a quarter million gallons
of diesel fuel per year. Annual carbon savings are more than 66,650
metric tons.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $10 million. AP&T will be
working to complete the project’s financing plan in the coming months,
anticipating that remaining construction dollars will be predominantly
comprised of private investment and loan funds. AP&T has a target of
completing the project by the end of 2018, although the project’s
timeline is dependent upon weather and other factors.
Alaska Power & Telephone President and CEO Robert Grimm remarked: “AP&T
is excited for this opportunity to partner with USDA to help provide our
customers in the Tok region with more affordable, ‘home-sourced’ energy.
7-Mile wind will also help stabilize energy pricing by reducing our
customer’s exposure to pricing volatility and cost-escalation associated
with diesel fuel.”
The 7-Mile wind project is one effort in a multi-technology approach to
converting its rural service areas from diesel-based generation to other
sources of energy. The company is also working to develop the 1.5 MW
Yerrick Creek hydropower project near Tanacross.
“As a utility, AP&T has a long-term commitment to the communities we
serve; this gives us a long-term, big picture approach to infrastructure
planning,” Robert Grimm explained. “AP&T’s vision for Tok is to leverage
a variety of technologies, which will include the 7-Mile Wind project,
as well as the Yerrick Creek hydropower project. We believe development
of both of these projects will help improve the economics of subsequent
transmission interconnections to other nearby communities such as
Northway and Mentasta. Meanwhile, AP&T is conducting tests to understand
the benefits of fuels of opportunity, to help diversify fuel supply in
the region.”
Business Development Director Jason Custer stated: “We are thankful to
USDA, as well as Senators Murkowski and Sullivan, and Congressman Don
Young, for their longstanding support of the High Energy Cost Grant
program. Alaska is far behind the rest of North America in terms of
access to renewables, transmission interconnections, and energy costs;
the HECG is a vital tool for helping Alaskans catch-up to the rest of
the US, and come closer to socioeconomic parity.”
Alaska Power & Telephone Company is an experienced renewable energy
developer which currently owns and operates 7 small hydropower projects
in rural Alaska, as well as the largest utility-owned solar installation
in the State. The company is in the process of constructing two
additional hydropower projects; the Hiilangaay project on Prince of
Wales Island, and Yerrick Creek.
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