Construction of Southcentral Alaska’s first utility-scale wind farm is ahead of schedule, and CIRI expects the project to begin producing power in September.
CIRI has worked with more than 75 local, state, national and even international businesses to develop this project. CIRI expects the project to support more than 100 local project development and construction jobs this year. The first 11-turbine project phase will have a 17.6 megawatt (MW) generation capacity and will supply about 50,000 MW-hours of power to Chugach Electric Association (CEA) annually. Southcentral Alaska currently depends upon Cook Inlet natural gas for about 90 percent of its power generation.
The Fire Island Wind project will diversify Southcentral’s power-generation with sustainable wind energy. This project will benefit virtually every Southcentral Alaska resident by increasing competition and helping to stabilize our region’s long-term power costs.
CEA has a 25-year power purchase agreement and will begin receiving power from the Fire Island wind farm after turbine commissioning. CIRI expects to complete construction and commission the Fire Island Wind project to start generating power in fall 2012. Learn more by visiting www.fireislandwind.com.
