EverCurious
Gold Member
- Jul 24, 2014
- 11,221
- 1,845
Semi-Related on Wind Energy:
For those who think wind energy is the magic solution to all power problems I'd highly suggest watching this video which covers some of the very specific "problems" and drawbacks of wind farms (there's also a good bit of Alaska specific stuff like icing which would only apply to the northern half of the US and higher elevation facilities.) They go in depth about load following (aka you can't have "just" a wind farm, you still need a power plant, and into the issues of managing the wide variation of power from wind farms, etc. I found it very helpful.
Alaska had jumped all over the possibility of renewable energy because we originally thought it might be a viable solution for our many, many communities which have no access to any roads even, much less any kind of power grid system. I also think it should be noted that the vast, vast majority of power companies in Alaska are non-profit co-op's where they are community owned. This 2013 presentation is from the co-op of the largest wind farm in Alaska, Eva Creek, which is on the only "true" power grid in Alaska; put in by the military it runs power from Anchorage [JBER] north about 600 miles to Fairbanks [Clear, Greely, Wainwright]. Eva Creek is a 25MwH facility which owners of the co-op voted to give a shot in an attempt to reach their renewable energy goals; the State put in some $25M or so in grants, the total project cost was $93M.
For those who think wind energy is the magic solution to all power problems I'd highly suggest watching this video which covers some of the very specific "problems" and drawbacks of wind farms (there's also a good bit of Alaska specific stuff like icing which would only apply to the northern half of the US and higher elevation facilities.) They go in depth about load following (aka you can't have "just" a wind farm, you still need a power plant, and into the issues of managing the wide variation of power from wind farms, etc. I found it very helpful.
Alaska had jumped all over the possibility of renewable energy because we originally thought it might be a viable solution for our many, many communities which have no access to any roads even, much less any kind of power grid system. I also think it should be noted that the vast, vast majority of power companies in Alaska are non-profit co-op's where they are community owned. This 2013 presentation is from the co-op of the largest wind farm in Alaska, Eva Creek, which is on the only "true" power grid in Alaska; put in by the military it runs power from Anchorage [JBER] north about 600 miles to Fairbanks [Clear, Greely, Wainwright]. Eva Creek is a 25MwH facility which owners of the co-op voted to give a shot in an attempt to reach their renewable energy goals; the State put in some $25M or so in grants, the total project cost was $93M.
