An international marine renewable energy company is looking to help False Pass bring tidal energy to its shores.
Ocean Renewable Power Company, a Portland, Maine-based company working with the City of False Pass, is applying for a single-year state land-use permit. The organization wants to deploy doppler devices along the seabed in hopes of bringing a more affordable energy source to the small eastern Aleutian community.
The company boasts various successful tidal projects from Alaska to Ireland and Chile. They’ve been operating a freshwater hydrokinetic generator in Igiugig since 2019 and were looking into another project in Port Mackenzie a few years back.
Nathan Johnson, vice president of development, said the company is now hoping to anchor acoustic doppler current profilers in two locations on the seafloor near False Pass that would gather data on water velocity and measure the area’s potential for hydrokinetic energy.
“What's in permitting phase right now is not the actual technology for producing electricity from the tides, it's just for measuring the resource,” Johnson said.
And the resource in Isanotski Strait, which runs between False Pass on Unimak Island and the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, has a strong potential to produce tidal electricity, he said.
“They are very fortunate to have this incredible, predictable base-load resource literally at their doorstep,” Johnson said.
According to Taylor St. John, the company’s digital marketing specialist, the high velocity of water moving through the narrow strait, along with its proximity to the community, “makes it one of the best potential sites for tidal generation in Alaska, even in the United States.”
Some experts say the tidal energy industry still faces major hurdles to become a practical means of renewable energy production. Despite its potential, it can be expensive, difficult to tap into and faces some technological obstacles, making it a challenge to actually harness and use. Still, St. John said it’s a predictable form of power generation, and the hydrokinetic industry has advanced significantly in the last several decades.
St. John said the company also has a good track record of harnessing the source.
“[Ocean Renewable Power Company] technology has developed and been proven over the last 20 years and 19 successful deployments,” St. John said in an email to KUCB. “Our RivGen Power System has been operating in the remote community of Igiugig, Alaska since 2019.”
Many Alaska towns off the road system have diesel shipped in to fuel homes and businesses. That can get complicated and expensive, making renewable energy systems a very appealing alternative.
False Pass Mayor Nikki Hoblet said that’s true for her community of about 50 year-round residents.
“For future generations, the future of our community, I mean, we obviously cannot be dependent on diesel. We've been — that's all we use here is diesel,” Hoblet said.
False Pass is a small community on the eastern shore of Unimak Island that sits on a popular route between the North Pacific and Bering Sea, and relies heavily on the commercial fishing industries and marine traffic in the region.
The town usually gets diesel sent in yearly for utilities, Hoblet said. Not only does the city have to worry about the cost of fuel and shipping, but she said weather, including unusually icy conditions this winter, can affect the community’s access to the resource, depending on shipment timings.
A representative from Ocean Renewable visited False Pass on Tuesday for a community engagement meeting about the potential of hydrokinetic energy sources in the area. Hoblet said the community made a good turnout to share their thoughts and learn more about the project, which is more than a decade in the making.
“I think the community is very supportive of the project and looking forward to advancing it to lessen our reliance on diesel,” she said.
The city’s been looking into the feasibility of tidal energy sources since about 2009, she said. This phase of the project, which is funded by $1.25 million of congressionally directed spending awarded to False Pass in 2023, will help the city understand the feasibility of implementing a hydrokinetic power source in Isanotski Strait and begin preparing for a possible new energy system.
“I was telling the community it's like getting it to the construction phase,” Hoblet said. “We will have the permitting pathway, we'll have everything — we'll have upgrades to our electric utility so that it can accommodate renewable energy, which is a huge part of the project.”
To begin that work, the State of Alaska’s Division of Land, Mining and Water must first approve a land-use permit for Ocean Renewable to anchor its doppler devices in state submerged lands in two sites in the strait. The company will determine the exact locations for those after some surveying. The permit application states that the devices will be deployed for a full tidal cycle, about 35 days.
Comments on the permit application can be submitted to the state until the end of the day on July 1. Those should be sent to the state’s Division of Mining, Land and Water in Anchorage.
