GVEA’s Board of Directors gave the Eva Creek Wind Project a final nod of approval on June 27, 2011. The cooperative’s seven directors voted unanimously in favor of what will be the largest wind project in Alaska and the first by any Railbelt utility.
At 24-megawatts (total of 12 turbines), Eva Creek will meet the board’s goal of having 20 percent of the system’s peak load generated by renewable resources by 2014. GVEA’s 2010 peak load was 208.1 MW.
This is really exciting news for Golden Valley and the Interior as a whole. GVEA has been researching wind in the Eva Creek area since 2003; we’ve done our due diligence. Eva Creek integrates well into GVEA’s system, helps reduce our dependence on oil and meets the cooperative’s renewable energy pledge. And it won't raise rates.
In fact, assuming oil prices of $90 per barrel, Eva Creek will save members $13.6 million over the next 20 years.
Project Advantages
- Meets GVEA's renewable energy pledge
- No impact to rates
- Helps "kick the oil habit" by displacing 76,686,000 kilowatt-hours (36 percent capacity factor) of oil with renewable energy annually
- GVEA-owned and operated
Projected Costs
Capital costs: $90 million
Annual debt service: $6,056,100 (18-year amortization, 2.1% interest)
Operating costs: $1,500,000 annually
Cost of energy: $0.098/kWh
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2003 - 2010 |
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October 2009 |
Installed two 80-meter MET towers at Eva Creek site and one 50M MET tower on Walker Dome for further wind testing. |
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May - Nov 2010 |
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Jan - June 2011 |
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Spring - Fall 2011 |
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2012 |
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