June 29, 2010
To the editor:
I have been a member of Golden Valley Electric Association for 46 years. I was a surveyor on the Healy-to-Fairbanks power line in the 1960s, fighting mosquitoes who got their energy from me. So do I like GVEA? I do. I like to turn on the lights.
Still, for the past two years I have been working to improve the insulation of my home, changing windows, chinking logs, replacing doors, adding compact fluorescent lamps and changing the furnace for more high efficiency. Soon I will insulate under portions of the house and replace the roof insulation. Not because I hate GVEA, but because I think my level of personal consumption of energy is appalling.
Plus, my electricity will cost even more in the future, given the additional $95 million the Healy Clean Coal Plant will take to license and the expenditure of vast amount of additional energy to make the changes required. The old design Healy Clean Coal Plant has been very, very clean for many years, in that it hasn’t worked.
Clean coal is an oxymoron. And I think, with apologies to the Usibellis, that the plant should now serve as a great monument to the end of the construction of coal plants and visited by lots of green tourists (not the Martians). In this mode it will contribute to the economy of Healy, which could use some help — have you ever directed anyone to Healy as a great tourist site? Now you will have the chance!
So I, but unfortunately apparently not GVEA, will continue to reduce consumption of energy in whichever way I can become more responsible. I hope GVEA can become more responsible, too. Think wind power!
This is discussion about wind power, nukes and hydro.
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/renewable-energy-energy-sector-nuclear-power/7/7/2010/id/29072?camp=syndication&medium=portals&from=yahoo
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GVEA's web page has some more info about Heley.
25 megs is not much in the schema of things, however the fist Kwh will cost 100 million dollars but all the rest are free for years to come.
The wind mills come pref fab and, as I understand they are plug and play. As each one is install it starts putting out power right away. There is no need to install all of them before you get a Kwh.
lwitr
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the wind farm, which is slated to cost almost the same amount as the coal plant, isn't going to solve our energy needs when it is finished TEN years from now. I can't wait for my electric bill to go down or, more likely, keep going up, while we wait for your pie-in-the-sky wind to materialize.
Wind can be part of the mix, but it isn't the placebo you think it is.
It is clearly you who has not followed the thread, but like every good Liberal you distort the conversation to suit your agenda regardless of the facts of the matter.
_________
Please do try to keep up with the thread Oldowl... we were talking about why Mr. Helfferich is not using wind power... Mr. Helfferich does not live in Healy.
Really?! Then I wonder where the wind is coming from for the people I know in that area with their own windmills for personal use and also those who are selling their wind power to GVEA through the SNAP program? Having lived in that area I know there is plenty of wind year around.
---Question
At what location?
--- bgcjj
Wind power is an reasonable supplement to possibly reduce the need to burn the very expensive naphtha in the NP turbines, but it will never be able to replace coal, or ultimately natural gas, as the best and cheapest source of our electricity.
Coal is never 100% clean and mercury emissions from a coal plant are never healthy just because they are reduced by low sulfur coal. People in areas of coal plants have increased respiratory, sinus, and bronchial problems,etc.
Healy "Clean Coal" will be run as a traditional coal-fired plant because Usibelli's coal, which is naturally very-low-sulfur couldn't pass the test for the higher-sulfur coal required for the plant. In other words, it will probably be more clean burning that other traditional plants in the Lower 48 just because Usibelli coal is low-sulfur. It's expected to produce about 40 kilowatts of electricity on a regular basis. It's also just about ready to go. It could be on-line by next summer. They have to seek a license as a traditional coal plant, but since the plant has already been built, the EPA had said they were likely to issue the license.
The wind farm, which hasn't been built yet, will cost just about the same as the Healy coal plant, but -- because of the vaguery of wind -- it expected to produce just 9 kilowatts of electricity occasionally. It'll be about five years before it's on line and at that point, it will start deciminating the locl bird population. Ooops -- did I let the cat out of the bag! Yes, there's an environmental downside to wind power that nobody likes to talk about, but is the reason why environmentalists are likely to protest this farm about halfway through its construction and likely get it stopped. They certainly have in other parts of the country. Kansas and North Dakota are both places that had big plans for their ever-present wind and have faced project-killing protests.
I'm not certain how easy it might be to convert the coal plant to natural gas if it becomes available, but that would be a good question to ask. The economic reality is that we have an existing plant that could be up and running in months that is guaranteed to supply an adequate electric output. A proposed wind farm that may occasionally provide some electricity is not a close competitor to anyone who thinks we pay too much for energy now.
If you want reliable electricity, folks, you have to accept that we need to build nuclear plants. Susitna is another pipe dream. The enviromentalists derailed it 25 years ago and they will derail it again if we ever overcome the engineering problems associated with it. Yes, they'll try to derail nuclear as well, but at least that has a proven safety track record all over Europe and Japan. And, no, let's not talk about Chenobyl because that only proves what happens if you don't build a containment building as was in place at 3-Mile Island.
I suggest interviewing Nancy Bale, head of the Denali Citizens Council, and looking at their website. Also talk to the Borough Assembly members and local residents to get their viewpoints.
Usibelli is not the good steward they promote themselves to be. The DNR issued a finding this past week to allow them to explore the area around Healy for coal bed methane gas, even though they already know it is there. This is only the beginning of issuing them a permit to drill. In 2005 local residents commented against this and now the DNR has gone ahead and brought it up again, issuing this finding. Irwin says the state's interests are more important than the local interests on this despite environmental concerns about a process that takes huge amounts of water to drill and has caused problems with the water table in other states. The Alaska Mental Health Trust has just announced its intentions of doing the same on its lands in the Nenana, Anderson, and Healy area. The lands the state is allowing Usibelli to explore on include lands next to private property, and next to Denali National Park. They also include private property where owners do not have mineral rights. This time DNR has only given people who have previously commented 20 days to comment and no new comments. Coal bed methane gas is a process detrimental to the water table, and leaves a large environmental footprint.
So far as the coal plant goes, why waste any more money on something that is environmentally destructive when there are alternatives? People need to look at what coal has done to West Virginia. A recent study by WVU concluded that the cost of coal with regard to health, safety, etc. far outweighed any economic benefit to the state. Can't Alaska learn from what has happened elsewhere? Also look up what has happened in other communities with coal bed methane gas development.
Until they figure out a way to deal with the silt problem on the susitna dam, we'll burn coal.
Until we get a natural gas pipeline to Fairbanks, we'll have to burn coal.
GVEA never should have wasted the money on those NAPTHA boilers, it should have been coal.