But little was known about how much economic value this powerful inlet could bring to Alaska—until now. Photo by Christopher Pike, NREL.
Working closely with Homer Electric Association, the utility serving the portion of the Railbelt grid that borders the Cook Inlet, the NREL team developed a grid operations model. With that model, they discovered that not only could tidal energy play a valuable role in decarbonizing Alaska’s biggest grid, but it could also boost the state’s economy.
But that is not all. “There’s also potential to generate green fuels, like hydrogen, to export to other states or overseas,” Schwarz said. “Our models are aligned with what the grid operators are seeing. They’re as real as they can get,” said Ben McGilton, a research engineer at NREL and another author on the study.
If, however, tidal energy technologies do make it to market, tidal energy could meet about 14% of the total Railbelt electrical demand in 2035, McGilton said. That percentage could increase to 20% if Alaska upgrades its transmission system. The existing Kenai Intertie, the only transmission line that connects the Kenai Peninsula and Homer to the rest of the Railbelt system, can only transfer about 75 MW of electricity as of today.