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Permit for Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy FERC issues preliminary permit, giving the company the right to study the feasibility of a major tidal power system near Anchorage Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has issued a preliminary permit to Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy Corp. to give the company the exclusive right to study the feasibility of developing a major tidal power system at the entrance to the Turnagain Arm near Anchorage. The company has envisaged the construction of two 8-mile tidal fences across the arm, fitted with 220 tidal turbines, to provide a total installed electricity generation capacity of 2,200 megawatts. One fence would run from near Fire Island to Point Possession on the Kenai Peninsula. The second fence would run across the arm, 5-7 miles south of Fire Island. Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy has said that the system would have sufficient capacity to meet the entirety of the Alaska Railbelt electricity demand.
FERC emphasized that the preliminary permit does not authorize any ground disturbance, the entry to any lands or the construction of any facilities. The purpose of the permit is to secure the permittee’s priority for the envisaged hydropower system while the company studies the feasibility of the project and the potential impacts of the system. An actual development would require a FERC license - the permittee would have first priority in applying for a license. And the development would obviously require an environmental evaluation and the requisite permitting.
Comments filed As previously reported in Petroleum News, several entities filed comments with FERC in response to Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy’s permit application. The Center for Biological Diversity expressed concern about potential impacts on Cook Inlet beluga whales, a species protected under the Endangered Species Act. In addition to also commenting on the beluga whales, the Environmental Protection Agency said that there is a need to minimize impacts on traditional and cultural activities. The EPA emphasized the importance of conducting an analysis of the project under the terms of the National Environmental Policy Act. The Department of the Interior commented that the project might impact protected land associated with the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail on the Cook Inlet coast.
Tidal power can provide renewable energy that predictably responds to the ebb and flow of the tidal currents. However, the energy output is not constant, fluctuating with the rise and fall of the tide. Turnagain Arm Tidal Energy has proposed conducting a study into the potential use of industrial batteries to manage the variable power output.
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