Wind Power Prospecting Continues in the Valley

The Little Mount Susitna Wind project is moving forward with its plans to add wind energy to the railbelt power sources. At their meeting this week, the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for Alaska Renewables, LLC, to add several towers to their existing site.

Alaska Renewables Community Engagement and Accountability Manager Faith Tyson says the permit is the tall towers conditional use permit and has a specific purpose for the project.

“That application is specifically for the installation of meteorological towers. And those towers are temporary towers that will be used to collect weather information.” 

Alaska Renewables Vice President Andrew McDonnell says there are currently three meteorological towers at the site. The new towers will help provide more information about wind capacity there.

“Our goal is to just improve our understanding of the wind resource at this site at different locations within the original project boundary. And that’s important because if the project does get built there will be wind turbines located on different parts of the Little Mount Susitna Plateau. And so we need to understand how the wind and other climate and weather variables differ from location to location across that plateau.”    

The proposed towers will be located on land owned by the State and will only be on site for a few years. Alaska Renewables has submitted a lease application to the Department of Natural Resources to use the land for the longer term project. Site access for the full wind project would likely mean extending existing oil and gas roads in the Beluga area of Cook Inlet. Transmission lines from the site would also likely be connected to that area to bring more electricity to the railbelt utilities.

But there are other benefits to the utilities and customers. 

“Diversify their energy mix, reduce their emissions associated with their generation of power, and also commit to a long-term fixed-price contract that is predictable and offers energy security in the face of the many energy security challenges that we are facing here in the State.”

Tyson says community involvement is key to the success of the project. She invites community members and groups to reach out to her with questions.