The Arctic Energy Office
Remote Electrical Power Generation
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| Slimhole drilling is used to test the Fort Yukon CBNG resource |
AEO activities in part focus on research, development, and deployment of electric power systems in Alaska’s remote rural areas, which have some of the Nation’s highest electricity costs.
Investigating ways to generate electric power for some of Alaska’s remote villages poses a unique challenge for AEO. Despite the State’s world-class energy resources, more than 200 small, remote villages must rely on diesel barged in via river only during summer months to fuel their electric generators—at a delivered-energy cost triple that of the Lower 48 States.
Opportunities for project capital financing are minimal. Options under study for cost-effective, more environmentally friendly electric power generation in rural and remote Alaska include fuel cells, geothermal, wind energy, small hydroelectric power, river turbines, tidal power, and coalbed natural gas (CBNG).
AEO, with the Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), and others, is co-funding a project to evaluate the potential of CBNG as a remote power fuel in rural Alaska. DOE also is funding review of CBNG coproduced-water disposal methods in Alaska, a critical issue for resource development amid environmental concerns in the Lower 48 as well.
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