MAKUSHIN VOLCANO

A group of scientists from Colorado is using drone technology to keep an eye on activity in Makushin Volcano.

A delegation of Alaska energy officials on Tuesday visited Unalaska, where representatives from the Makushin Geothermal Project made their case for what could prove one of the biggest geothermal projects in Alaska history.

The company aiming to bring geothermal energy to Unalaska plans to pay more than $90 million to an engineering and construction firm to build the volcano-powered project, under a contract announced Jan. 18.Ounalashka Corporation/Chena Power, LLC, the company behind the project, is a joint venture between Unalaska’s Native corporation and Fairbanks-based Chena Power. And while OCCP Project Manager Dave Matthews said they plan to start construction of the plant this coming summer, the company still hasn’t announced that it’s secured any funding.

A geothermal energy project in Unalaska is taking another step forward in development. Ounalashka Corporation/Chena Power, LLC, the company responsible for the Makushin Geothermal Project, says it’s finalizing negotiations with a renewable energy firm to develop the Makushin Geothermal Project. That could be a major milestone for the project, which aims to develop geothermal energy from Makushin Volcano, about 13 miles from Unalaska’s city center.

The Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska has received more than $2 million in federal dollars to go towards the Makushin Geothermal Project to harness a local source to power the island’s community and industry. The power project is being led by Ounalashka Corp./Chena Power, LLC, a joint partnership between Unalaska’s Native village corporation and a Fairbanks-based private energy firm. Although the Qawalangin Tribe is not a partner with OCCP, the tribe’s chief executive says they are helping out and providing funding.

People living in Aleutian communities are no strangers to the occasional earthquake. But in recent years, the region has seen some ramped up seismic activity, including a magnitude-6.2 earthquake that hit just about 40 miles south of Unalaska earlier this month. KUCB’s Maggie Nelson sat down with Rob Witter, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, to hear more about the island’s recent earthquake and how that fits into the larger picture of seismic activity in the Aleutians.

An Unalaska local will soon be heading up local operations for the island’s Native corporation. The Ounalashka Corp. announced last month that its CEO, Chris Salts, will be leaving the island and Denise Rankin will take on a local leadership role.

A power outage caught Unalaskans by surprise Thursday evening when most of the island went dark.According to the island’s acting public utilities director, Steve Tompkins, a failed transformer caused the outage, which occurred around 5:30 p.m. and lasted nearly five hours.“Initial indications were that a unit had tripped offline,” Tompkins said. “And it caused an overload on the other unit, which took itself offline. And it resulted in a near universal outage.”Standard Oil Hill was the only area on the island that didn’t lose power during the first outage, he said.

Ounalashka Corp./Chena Power, LLC (OCCP) will have an extra year to obtain funding for their geothermal power project at Makushin Volcano. The Unalaska…

A magnitude-6.4 earthquake hit about 25 miles east of Nikolski Tuesday morning, and was felt by residents in Nikolski, Unalaska, and Akutan. The…