Wind farm unveiled in Nome

May 03, 2009

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The community of Nome celebrated the official completion of its wind farm Thursday.

It's the largest collection of wind turbines in the state and taps into an energy resource that never goes up or down in price.

And there's plenty of wind out on the tundra of northwest Alaska. In the past few weeks, the wind farm has been up to full power at times.

"A tremendous amount of wind, and the majority of the wind comes from just east of north," said Brian Jackson, one of the founders of Western Community Energy.

Jackson spent more than six months planning and building the farm. He says the goal is to save diesel fuel -- ideally about 200,000 gallons per year.

"When the wind's blowing over 30 mph this project is producing about 25 percent of the energy that the community of Nome would be utilizing," Jackson said.

There are 18 towers in Nome, which are now a noticeable addition to its previously sparse skyline.

"You really don't notice them too much," Jackson said. "These are only 100 foot tall towers, and the blades are 50 feet in diameter."

They sit idle on calm days and just as still on really windy days -- anything above 60 mph causes the system to shut down to protect it from damage.

But that seldom happens, and when it does, it's only a brief pause.

The system is tuned to work best at about 30 mph.

Everything is wired to a small building on-site with an Internet connection that can be controlled from anywhere in the world.

"We only need to spend time up here when we have a service call," Jackson said.

The project is a joint venture between Bering Straights, and Sitnesauk Native corporations and is expected to last 30 years.

The next step is to start a training program using Nome's wind farm as a teaching resource. The idea is to expand wind farms to nearby villages.

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