Wow! Great article. You’ve connected a couple of dots for me that I have been missing. I’m from Anchorage, and work in Prudhoe Bay. I drive by the LNG plant Hilcorp is building regularly. I was fascinated to learn just how much coal Alaska has, and the efficiency of the new generation coal plants. It may be a naked subsidy grab as mentioned in the comment above, but UAF’s proposal to generate electricity with coal powered plants, and offset the costs with carbon capture, pumping the Co2 into the gas wells in Cook Inlet is genius. The pipeline infrastructure to transport Co2 from Anchorage to the wells already exists. Thanks for the article. You’ve gained a subscriber!
Agreed that is a naked subsidy grab but it is a clever idea.
Anchorage to Purdhoe Bay, that’s a nice 5 minute commute! Back in the day, one of my family members would make that trip for work from Anchorage up in the North Slope and back. A trip like that is eye opening just how vast our world is.
This is very interesting. The town of Inuvik, where my family lived in the 1970s, in Canada’s Northwest Territory, has been trucking diesel and LNG up the rough Dempster highway for more than a decade since a natural gas well that powered the town’s power plant depleted. They are currently working toward building a small LNG facility at the site of another gas well close to the town. Once completed the facility is expected to provide LNG to Inuvik and other communities in the region for the next 50 years. The power issues in the arctic are unique!
Not sure what the current costs are to keep the town energized with diesel and LNG trucked in from the south--call it expensive like everything in the north. There will be savings once they begin trucking LNG from 75 miles away instead of hundreds of miles away. But even that shorter distance could occasionally be compromised--the highway from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, which is where the LNG from the new plant will be traveling was closed for a couple of weeks earlier this year because of persistent winter storms.
The town has two power plants. One runs on diesel and is used as a standby generator. The other is fueled by natural gas. From the late 90s to 2012 the gas plant was supplied by the nearby Ikhil gas reservoir. When the reservoir depleted the town used the diesel generators for about a year until LNG imports from the south began. The new, nearby LNG plant will replace the LNG that is coming up the Dempster highway from the south.
That could be an option for sure! It’s been tossed around for a while. But like the gas pipeline, we’ll have to see if it happens, in part due to the environmental regulations, land conflicts, and the costs of such an undertaking given how small Alaska population is.
Wow! Great article. You’ve connected a couple of dots for me that I have been missing. I’m from Anchorage, and work in Prudhoe Bay. I drive by the LNG plant Hilcorp is building regularly. I was fascinated to learn just how much coal Alaska has, and the efficiency of the new generation coal plants. It may be a naked subsidy grab as mentioned in the comment above, but UAF’s proposal to generate electricity with coal powered plants, and offset the costs with carbon capture, pumping the Co2 into the gas wells in Cook Inlet is genius. The pipeline infrastructure to transport Co2 from Anchorage to the wells already exists. Thanks for the article. You’ve gained a subscriber!
Thank you!
Agreed that is a naked subsidy grab but it is a clever idea.
Anchorage to Purdhoe Bay, that’s a nice 5 minute commute! Back in the day, one of my family members would make that trip for work from Anchorage up in the North Slope and back. A trip like that is eye opening just how vast our world is.
This is very interesting. The town of Inuvik, where my family lived in the 1970s, in Canada’s Northwest Territory, has been trucking diesel and LNG up the rough Dempster highway for more than a decade since a natural gas well that powered the town’s power plant depleted. They are currently working toward building a small LNG facility at the site of another gas well close to the town. Once completed the facility is expected to provide LNG to Inuvik and other communities in the region for the next 50 years. The power issues in the arctic are unique!
Yes, they are very much unique! Any idea what the cost is to truck it in there ? And I’ll bet it can get complicated when there’s a bad Arctic storm
Not sure what the current costs are to keep the town energized with diesel and LNG trucked in from the south--call it expensive like everything in the north. There will be savings once they begin trucking LNG from 75 miles away instead of hundreds of miles away. But even that shorter distance could occasionally be compromised--the highway from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, which is where the LNG from the new plant will be traveling was closed for a couple of weeks earlier this year because of persistent winter storms.
The town has two power plants. One runs on diesel and is used as a standby generator. The other is fueled by natural gas. From the late 90s to 2012 the gas plant was supplied by the nearby Ikhil gas reservoir. When the reservoir depleted the town used the diesel generators for about a year until LNG imports from the south began. The new, nearby LNG plant will replace the LNG that is coming up the Dempster highway from the south.
Thanks for the info!
So with the road closures and fuel switching, does the town use dual or multi fuel generators?
We should build a gas fired generation plant on the NS and then run HVDC wires to populations. Always surprised it isn’t discussed. Good article!
That could be an option for sure! It’s been tossed around for a while. But like the gas pipeline, we’ll have to see if it happens, in part due to the environmental regulations, land conflicts, and the costs of such an undertaking given how small Alaska population is.
Very educational article, I never knew oil rich Alaska had energy issues.
Reminds me of Biden Administration funding solar projects in oil rich Angola. What a waste of our tax dollars 💰😔.
Thank you and agreed!
What 😳
Google up Biden subsidies for Angola
Without question just a subsidy money grab, pretty naked actually.
Unfortunately building the grid isn’t about building reliable capacity: it’s about maximizing subsidies.