The Eva Creek Wind Project is a 24 MW (megawatt) wind farm to be constructed near Healy AK by Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA). Construction is expected to begin in May 2012, with startup of commercial operations planned for Fall 2012.
Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) began studying wind potential in the Healy area in 2003 by installing wind-monitoring towers. In 2009 the company further expanded its explorations. Environmental surveys and development plans were initiated in 2010. In 2011, the GVEA board of directors approved the project and permit applications have either been submitted or approved.
The final project will consist of 12 wind turbines, a substation, an operations and maintenance building, two communication towers and a meteorological tower. The site is located north northeast of Healy, in the valley south of Rex Dome.
GVEA projects that the construction costs for Eva Creek will be around $90 million. Maintenance costs are projected at $1.5 million annually, with another $6 million per year required to service the loan at 2.1% interest. This $7.5 million per year cost translates into 9.8 cents/kWh, which is comparable to the selling price of the power to be produced by the Fire Island Wind project near Anchorage (9.7 cents/kWh).
These estimates, however, have provoked controversy, especially in relation to a competing project, the Delta Wind Farm near Delta Junction. GVEA considered purchasing power from the privately owned Delta Wind Farm but ultimately decided to move forward with their 100% owned Eva Creek project. Proponents of the Delta Wind Farm have argued that Eva Creek will end up costing much more than GVEA currently estimates. A summary of the objections and a response from GVEA can be found here.
Contracts were awarded in July 2011 and construction is currently scheduled to begin in May 2012. The Eva Wind Farm Project expects to begin commercial operations in September 2012.
By David Coil, Niki Hoagland, Bretwood Higman, Ground Truth Trekking
Content on this page is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license. For commercial uses please contact us.
Date Created: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 12:25:26 -0900
Last Modified: Thu, 10 May 2012 21:42:59 -0800
Twitter Updates:@GroundTruthTrek:http://t.co/Dt3zRLLm http://t.co/JqqHzUUC
@GroundTruthTrek:Where the Heck is Donlin? the film, is in the fourth day of it's 'kickstarter' campaign. Please visit the page,... http://t.co/DcDtW2rD
@GroundTruthTrek:I posted 13 photos on Facebook in the album "Kachemak Bay Tidepooling, 2012" http://t.co/8jpSbTsX
@GroundTruthTrek:Bjorn and Kim's kickstarter campaign is alive. Please visit, share and if you can, consider a donation. http://t.co/GKhpp7eW
@GroundTruthTrek:There's 84 Alaska hardrock mine prospects, but most only know a couple. We mapped them all: http://t.co/4YZN7S8M
