Akutan District Heating
Akutan Feasibility Study: District Heating
The City of Akutan intends to construct, operate and maintain two 5 Megawatt (MW) non-condensing steam plants, along with four production/injection wells, access roads, transmission lines and support facilities necessary to convey power to the City of Akutan and the Trident Seafoods Shore Plant, located adjacent to Akutan village.
The Akutan District Heating Project will study the feasibility of using residual steam and hot water to provide facility and home heating in Akutan, also referred to as teleheating. Over 50% of the energy used in Alaska communities is for heating and electrical resistance heating and is the most expensive while use of residual hot water from the geothermal steam plants in anticipated to be cost-effective.
This project is funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and will be managed by the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA). Partners include the the Akutan city government, Trident Seafoods and the Akutan Tribal Council. The benefits and impacts of this project are both socio-economic and environmental. If the conceptual project design is deemed feasible through this study, as partners believe will be the case, a large percent of the community’s heating energy demand could be met by clean, sustainable, flat-priced home heating from geothermal. Akutan could be the first community in Alaska to install geothermal district heating. By reducing carbon dioxide emissions, Akutan as a community will do its part to address climate change and ocean acidification, both of which threaten the subsistence and commercial livelihood of this maritime community. At the same time the associated economic benefits of producing fuel free electricity and heat, and creating local high quality sustainable jobs would enliven the community, creating economic stability and the associated social benefits to the community. Efforts here would be transferable to many similarly placed Alaskan communities and could serve as a blueprint for other geothermal energy projects which would bring a necessary new source of power to remote predominately Alaska Native communities which suffer from high fossil fuel prices. Final report below:
The Akutan District Heating Project will study the feasibility of using residual steam and hot water to provide facility and home heating in Akutan, also referred to as teleheating. Over 50% of the energy used in Alaska communities is for heating and electrical resistance heating and is the most expensive while use of residual hot water from the geothermal steam plants in anticipated to be cost-effective.
This project is funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and will be managed by the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA). Partners include the the Akutan city government, Trident Seafoods and the Akutan Tribal Council. The benefits and impacts of this project are both socio-economic and environmental. If the conceptual project design is deemed feasible through this study, as partners believe will be the case, a large percent of the community’s heating energy demand could be met by clean, sustainable, flat-priced home heating from geothermal. Akutan could be the first community in Alaska to install geothermal district heating. By reducing carbon dioxide emissions, Akutan as a community will do its part to address climate change and ocean acidification, both of which threaten the subsistence and commercial livelihood of this maritime community. At the same time the associated economic benefits of producing fuel free electricity and heat, and creating local high quality sustainable jobs would enliven the community, creating economic stability and the associated social benefits to the community. Efforts here would be transferable to many similarly placed Alaskan communities and could serve as a blueprint for other geothermal energy projects which would bring a necessary new source of power to remote predominately Alaska Native communities which suffer from high fossil fuel prices. Final report below: