The Interior and the rural regions of Alaska have relied heavily on liquid petroleum as an energy source for electricity, space heating and transportation, since the construction of the trans-Alaska crude oil pipeline in 1978. The economy of Alaska is being crippled and stifled due to the recent global five-fold increase in the price of crude oil, and the consequent increase in the price of all refined petroleum products in all regions of Alaska. In the Interior the cost of electric generation, space heating, and transportation has more than doubled in the past four years.

The Interior Issues Council, Cost of Energy Taskforce, spent several months identifying possible energy solutions that could help mitigate the crippling high energy cost. The goals of the task force were to identify solutions that reduce the cost of energy, create a sustainable fuel supply, reduce PM2.5, reduce CO2 and sulfur emissions, and address local solid waste disposal issues.

One significant reduction in energy cost was shown to be the construction of carbon-based-fuel gasifier which produced syngas (carbon monoxide and hydrogen), and heat. Output from such units could feed existing combustion turbines, steam turbines coupled to electric generators, and/or could feed new suitably-chosen electric generation units.  The syngas could also feed a Fischer-Tropsch (FT) plant for the production of synthetic liquid petroleum fuels.

The task force’s financial analysis of the gasifier option shows an incremental reduction in electrical costs in excess of 50%, and a reduction in (FT) diesel fuel in excess of 30%, with locally - available coal as the initial fuel and biomass co-feed at a later time as it becomes available and feasible. Using this energy model, the residential energy bill could be reduced by 23%.

Rural Alaska would benefit, as these lower-cost synthetic fuels would be available from Fairbanks for shipment to rural Alaska.

We are now entering the design engineering stage of the project. The State of Alaska as well as the Fairbanks North Star Borough have expressed support for and given funding toward this design phase.

FEDC has entered into a contract with Hatch, LLC. an engineering firm that is working to determine the feasibility of the Biomass/Coal to Liquids project. Once complete, our community may have a plan to move forward to address the cost of energy for our community

Alaska’s energy challenge is severe for both urban and rural residents.  Costs of heating, transportation and power generation in urban Alaska have sky rocketed in recent years; sapping our economic vitality and leading to a net diminishment of our standard of living.  And the effects for Alaska’s rural communities have been particularly severe: over-reliance on expensive hydrocarbon fuel, coupled with high transportation costs and the small size of local demand, have pushed many rural communities to the brink of collapse. 

In response to this challenge, FEDC has entered a collaborative partnership with the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation and the University of Alaska to form the Alaska Sustainable Energy Center (ASEC).

Together, and in partnership private industry, government agencies and other motivated, results-based individuals and organizations, the Alaska Sustainable Energy Center hopes to lower the cost of energy for rural communities & urban residents by helping them connect to their vast, locally available sustainable & renewable energy resources.

For more information please contact:

Ryan Colgan
(907)457-3454
ryan@cchrc.org

The Interior Issues Council

Cost of Energy Task force:

Gasification RFP

Fairbanks Energy Plan

(The above link is complete plan, a large PDF file. Below are links to each chapter of the Fairbanks Energy Plan)

Executive Summary

Chapter 1, Gasification

Chapter 2, Biomass

Chapter 3, Hydroelectric

Chapter 4, Geothermal

Chapter 5,Distributed Generation

Chapter 6, Conservation, Efficiency

Chapter 7