Fire Island
There's still hope for a wind farm
Published: September 2, 2006
Last Modified: September 2, 2006 at 02:50 AM
As Mark Twain might say, reports that the Fire Island wind project is dead are greatly exaggerated.
Recent news accounts had reported that installing wind-power electrical turbines on the island would interfere with two Federal Aviation Administration navigation systems serving the Anchorage airport. Some apparently concluded that the FAA's concerns created insurmountable obstacles, effectively killing Chugach Electric Association's power project.
Not so.
"The FAA has not told Chugach that the project is prohibited," says FAA spokeswoman Joette Storm. The FAA and Chugach have found a way to fix the complications with the VOR navigation system, according to minutes of a meeting the agency held on the subject early last month. With a $500,000 upgrade to the VOR system, the FAA said Chugach could locate 24 turbines on the island without creating problems. A funding source for the half-million-dollar upgrade has not been identified yet.
The second set of concerns, dealing with the airport's radar system based on the mainland, is still unresolved. "We're working together to work out issues," says Rob van Haastert, FAA's lead person on the wind proposal. "It will affect the capacity and efficiency of the airport as currently proposed. We're trying to make sure it doesn't interfere with airport operations."
The FAA is still trying to get its recently installed ASR-11 radar system to work as anticipated. (An older radar system is being used in the meantime, but the wind turbines would definitely interfere with it.) "The new ASR-11 presents the best technology to mitigate the wind turbine impacts," according to minutes of the FAA meeting in early August. Until the ASR-11 system is up to speed, perhaps by the end of October, the FAA can't give a final answer on the Fire Island wind generators.
Chugach Electric should be commended for sticking with the wind project, despite the complications. Most of the Railbelt's electricity comes from burning natural gas. The price of that gas is steadily rising, and it's uncertain whether drillers will find enough gas in the region to keep those electricity generators spinning for years to come. Once the wind farm is in place, local utilities would have a small but significant electricity source whose fuel cost is zero and will never go up.
Having a more diverse range of electricity generation sources would be a good thing for reliability, too. During the flooding in August, Chugach struggled to keep the raging waters of the Susitna River from knocking out the transmission towers carrying power from its Beluga gas-fired plant to Anchorage. Fortunately, only one of the three Beluga lines went out at any given time, according to Chugach spokesman Phil Steyer. A new power source, following a new distribution route, would add stability and security to the electric grid.
In a Compass commentary on this page today, the leaders of Anchorage's two electric utilities say, "Hopefully we can find a way for a Fire Island wind project to move forward without unduly interfering with FAA systems."
We hope so, too.
BOTTOM LINE: Chugach Electric's Fire Island wind turbine project is still alive, and that's a good thing.
