Alaska searches for energy alternatives
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Yakutat community aims to generate electric power from waves; AEA awarded federal grant to develop rural wood energy projects
Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Both urban and rural Alaska are heavily dependent on expensive fossil fuels for electricity and heat.
As a result, innovators, communities and government agencies continually pursue alternative sources of energy.
Two projects generating attention recently include an effort to harness the power of ocean waves at Yakutat, northwest of Juneau.
Another effort will focus on further developing wood as an energy resource in rural Alaska.
Yakutat wave project Yakutat is located on the Gulf of Alaska, and is known for large waves that attract adventurous surfers. About 700 people live at Yakutat.
“Like many rural Alaskan communities, Yakutat faces an energy crisis driven by high costs of electrical power and heating fuel and by complete dependence on outside sources of petroleum products,” the City and Borough of Yakutat website says. “The municipal power company operates diesel generators for 100 percent of the electricity used locally.”
To face what it calls an energy crisis, Yakutat has embarked on a “renewable energy self-sufficiency program.”
“Yakutat aims to be the first municipality in North America to generate electrical grid power from wave energy,” the website says. “Our community offers close proximity to a tremendous source of power, the Gulf of Alaska!”
On Jan. 30, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a preliminary permit to Resolute Marine Energy Inc. for a Yakutat wave energy project.
The Boston-based company is focusing on development of patented nearshore wave energy technology, and a prototype device could be deployed in Yakutat by fall of 2014, the Yakutat website says.
On Sept. 23, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources said it would issue a one-year land use permit to Yakutat to place scientific instruments on submerged state acreage. Data will be collected about two miles seaward, a DNR public notice said.
Wood to energy Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Congressman Don Young recently announced the Alaska Energy Authority had been awarded federal funding to promote the development of rural wood energy projects.
“Alaska has always relied on wood-based resources for heat and power, and recent technological advancements have dramatically increased their efficiency while decreasing their impact and cost,” Young said in a joint press release with Murkowski.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Sept. 11 announced $1.1 million in grants to organizations in Alaska, California, Idaho, Minnesota and New Hampshire to form statewide teams to stimulate development of wood energy projects.
Vilsack called it part of the Obama administration’s “all of the above” energy strategy.
Under terms of the grants, private, state and federal organizations will work together on wood energy projects.
“Collectively, $2.9 million will be spent on this effort — $1.1 million in federal funds and $1.8 million in non-federal funds,” a U.S. Department of Agriculture press release said.
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