It didn't take long for word to spread to neighboring villages that electric rates in the tiny Western Alaska communities of Tununak and Toksook Bay had dropped.
As three new wind turbines sliced the air in Toksook Bay, the two villages' home electric bills dropped -- albeit slightly -- even as the cost of fuel rose.
It was a big dose of optimism for a part of Alaska where heating and lighting bills are putting a massive squeeze on household budgets, due to their reliance on fuel oil barged up the Alaska coast. Electricity in rural Alaska can cost several times more than in Anchorage.
Since installing Toksook Bay's wind turbines last year, "We've reduced our fuel use by 20 percent," said Brent Petrie, a manager for the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, which hopes to install wind turbines in 27 of the 53 communities it serves.
Many villages suffering from increased fuel costs aren't blessed with strong, continuous winds. They will need to look to other renewable energy sources or cut their losses, focusing on ways to be more fuel-efficient, Petrie said.
But where the wind is good in Alaska, it's a safe bet that people are scheming to harness its power. Wind farm projects have been proliferating in Alaska since the late 1990s, when Kotzebue and St. Paul installed windmills that are still operating successfully.
That's in contrast to the abject failure of a slew of poorly planned wind farms in the 1980s. The state Legislature used its first dose of oil wealth for a renewable energy push, but "Some of those projects became black eyes for renewable energy in Alaska. Nobody maintained them and there was nobody to fix them," Petrie said.
Southeast of Toksook Bay, the residents of Kongiganak have gotten word about their neighbor's lowered electric rates. They've been peppering the local power company manager to find out when their own wind turbines will arrive.
"The whole community has been asking ever since we introduced the idea," said Harvey Paul, who runs Kongiganak's Puvurnaq Power Co.
"Everybody's ready to see something like this, especially if it lowers rates," he said.
The Alaska Energy Authority, a state agency, has been recommending that villages and other organizations interested in renewable energy projects band together to make the projects more cost-efficient and attractive to potential donors.
Kongiganak and two neighboring villages, Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, followed suit -- they formed the Chaninik Wind Group and obtained $1.5 million in funding from the state Legislature to build an experimental wind farm in Kongiganak. The group is now getting ready to lay a foundation for the wind farm that doesn't require expensive, pile-driven supports.
"We're going to have to test it to make sure it performs as expected," Paul said. The wind farm will not supply power to the two other villages, which are too far away and will need their own turbines.
"We will help (Kipnuk and Kwigillingok) to install them," Paul said.
Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.
