Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (Joint Venture with Bethel Native Corporation) – 2017 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), a joint venture with Bethel Native Corporation (BNC), will install a 75-meter wind turbine to produce 900 kilowatts (kW) of energy and connect to the existing diesel power generation system serving three intertied communities (Bethel, Oscarville, and Napakiak). The turbine is expected to produce 2,370 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy annually for more than 6,600 rural Alaskans in about 2,900 buildings, and it will reduce the amount of diesel fuel used by about 170,280 gallons annually for a savings of up to $1,106,000 each year—reducing the cost of power over the 20-year life of the project by about $18 million.

Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, Inc. is a non-profit electric utility that provides electrical services to the tribal residents of 57 remote rural Alaska villages located in northern, western, and interior Alaska. Bethel Native Corporation is a village corporation that serves 2,000 shareholders. BNC has joined with AVEC to facilitate the move from diesel power to renewable wind energy to stabilize the cost of power and reduce diesel fuel emissions.

For the past decade, the community of Bethel and AVEC have been actively pursuing the development of a wind farm. In 2006, the State of Alaska’s Energy Authority (AEA) completed a wind resource assessment and concluded that Bethel has a Class 4 wind resource. (In addition, AVEC has been monitoring wind at the project site since November 2015 and has found a Class 5 wind resource.) In a July 2016 Phase I Wind Feasibility Study, a variety of wind turbines were examined for their use on this project. Two options were considered in detail: the EWT DW54-900 on a 75-meter tower and the GE 2.4-107 on an 80-meter tower. The report concluded that the EWT turbine would be the best choice for Bethel, based on the positive experience with this turbine manufacturer in Alaska.

After considering the feasibility report and discussions with the turbine manufacturer, it was determined that the best alternative to serve Bethel, Oscarville, and Napakiak is to install one EWT DW52-900 (smaller rotor size) because the DW54-900 is not certified for the existing wind class. A number of sites were considered for turbine placement in Bethel. A bird study and a radio-frequency electromagnetic field re-radiation analysis were completed to ensure that birds and a local radio station transmission would not be impacted. The conclusion was that a wind turbine on the western side of the community of Bethel was the best location to serve the communities.

The overall goal of this joint venture is to stabilize the costs of power and provide cleaner air in Bethel, Oscarville, and Napakiak by constructing and operating a wind turbine on the land owned by BNC. The objectives of the project are as follows:

• Objective 1:  Replace approximately 170,280 gallons of diesel fuel—for an average savings between $752,000 and $1,106,000/year—used annually in Bethel, Oscarville, and Napakiak, for the electrical generation of an estimated 2,370 MWh/year of clean, renewable wind power.
• Objective 2:  Stabilize 20 years of future costs of power for Bethel, Oscarville, and Napakiak by replacing diesel fuel-generated power with wind-generated power (project assumes a 20-year turbine life).
• Objective 3:  Avoid approximately 1,728 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually by replacing approximately 6% of the diesel-fuel-generated electrical power with clean renewable wind power.
• Objective 4:  Avoid risk of environmental damage to important subsistence and commercial fishing by reducing the amount of diesel fuel transported to and stored in Bethel.

To pursue these objectives, this project will install one commercially proven 900-kW turbine at a location owned and controlled by BNC and leased to AVEC. The project will connect to the existing power line that runs within 400 feet of the proposed turbine location and serve the residents, businesses, and public facilities in the three communities.

Bethel is located at the mouth of the Kuskokwim River, 40 miles inland from the Bering Sea. It lies in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, 400 air miles west of Anchorage, and accessible only by air and river. Bethel is the largest community in western Alaska and in the Unorganized Borough, as well as the ninth largest in Alaska. This wind energy project will be located on BNC lands in the vicinity of the Bethel airport.

The project is complete. For additional details, see the final report.

The project was competitively selected under the DOE Office of Indian Energy Fiscal Year 2016 funding opportunity announcement “Deployment of Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy on Indian Lands – 2017” (DE-FOA-0001660) and started in September 2017.

The November 2017 and December 2018 project status report provides more information.