00;00;00;09 - 00;00;01;03 Unknown No one in the wind world wanted to be involved in a project experienced 50 below. They were scared to death of it 00;00;06;27 - 00;00;09;19 Unknown This week on energy in the North, I speak with Mike Croft, 00;00;09;20 - 00;00;11;17 Unknown the managing partner and operator 00;00;11;18 - 00;00;13;09 Unknown of Alaska Environmental Power, 00;00;13;10 - 00;00;15;25 Unknown company that owns and operates the Delta Wind Farm, 00;00;15;26 - 00;00;18;15 Unknown The first privately owned wind farm in Alaska. 00;00;18;16 - 00;00;20;10 Unknown I began the conversation with Mike 00;00;20;11 - 00;00;23;06 Unknown by asking how he got interested in wind energy. 00;00;23;07 - 00;00;28;02 Unknown my brother and I were sitting in my office in the gravel pit one night just goofing off and we built this little wind turbine 00;00;28;03 - 00;00;29;29 Unknown out of a 12 volt generator 00;00;30;00 - 00;00;30;25 Unknown out of the car, 00;00;30;26 - 00;00;32;17 Unknown and we had it speeding up on the roof. 00;00;32;18 - 00;00;34;09 Unknown We had the wires coming through the window 00;00;34;10 - 00;00;34;26 Unknown and 00;00;34;27 - 00;00;36;21 Unknown we were measuring the electricity and just 00;00;36;22 - 00;00;37;15 Unknown goofing off. 00;00;37;16 - 00;00;39;15 Unknown And I took those wires down into a little 00;00;39;16 - 00;00;40;11 Unknown cup of water 00;00;40;12 - 00;00;41;21 Unknown and I started seeing the bubbles, 00;00;41;22 - 00;00;43;01 Unknown the hydrogen and the oxygen. 00;00;43;02 - 00;00;45;12 Unknown Well, of course, we're lighting itself on fire. Right. 00;00;45;13 - 00;00;46;23 Unknown And for me, it was like this. 00;00;46;24 - 00;00;47;24 Unknown This light came on. 00;00;47;25 - 00;00;48;16 Unknown Wait a minute. 00;00;48;17 - 00;00;50;05 Unknown It's 30 below zero. Outside. 00;00;50;06 - 00;00;52;04 Unknown The wind's blowing 20, 30 miles an hour. 00;00;52;05 - 00;00;54;09 Unknown And I can turn that into a flame. 00;00;54;10 - 00;00;55;14 Unknown I mean, I was hooked. 00;00;55;14 - 00;00;55;27 Unknown You know, 00;00;55;27 - 00;00;57;11 Unknown I build houses for a living, 00;00;57;11 - 00;01;00;27 Unknown and so I know what the energy needs are for the average house in the Arctic. 00;01;00;27 - 00;01;02;08 Unknown And so that's when I bought 00;01;02;09 - 00;01;05;13 Unknown six acres on the Park Highway at mile to 68. 00;01;05;14 - 00;01;07;09 Unknown It seemed like a pretty windy spot. 00;01;07;10 - 00;01;09;12 Unknown And that's where we've built the first wind farm 00;01;09;11 - 00;01;10;27 Unknown And that was five sky streams. 00;01;10;26 - 00;01;16;23 Unknown And lo and behold, I didn't realize it at the time, but a lot of the problems that I ran into with that interconnection 00;01;16;22 - 00;01;20;04 Unknown were going to be similar to what I was going to experience with the large stuff. 00;01;20;03 - 00;01;25;06 Unknown but what I did learn was that the volatility of that area was, was not good 00;01;25;06 - 00;01;26;15 Unknown because it would be very gusty. 00;01;26;15 - 00;01;30;02 Unknown And so that's what I started looking at Delta, because I knew Delta was a windy place 00;01;30;05 - 00;01;32;16 Unknown At this point, you had an investor get interested. 00;01;32;17 - 00;01;35;02 Unknown And that was Richard Clymer from Clymer Hall, Holland Davis. 00;01;35;02 - 00;01;37;11 Unknown And so they plopped $1,000,000 on the table, 00;01;37;11 - 00;01;42;07 Unknown and we bought 320 acres in Delta, and we ordered the first northern 100, 00;01;42;07 - 00;01;42;24 Unknown a model 00;01;42;24 - 00;01;43;07 Unknown turbine. 00;01;43;07 - 00;01;46;22 Unknown And the next spring we put that turbine up. We paid 00;01;46;22 - 00;01;51;08 Unknown $175,000 to get the power line in. I built cut to couple of miles roads. 00;01;51;08 - 00;01;53;15 Unknown We did the clearing, I poured the foundation 00;01;53;15 - 00;01;54;00 Unknown and 00;01;54;00 - 00;01;54;12 Unknown we had 00;01;54;12 - 00;01;55;20 Unknown a local crane company 00;01;55;20 - 00;01;57;00 Unknown come out there and help us 00;01;57;00 - 00;01;59;12 Unknown erect the tower. So that was the northern 100. 00;01;59;12 - 00;01;59;28 Unknown And then 00;01;59;28 - 00;02;01;04 Unknown two years later, 00;02;01;04 - 00;02;03;01 Unknown the Alaska Energy Authority started their 00;02;03;01 - 00;02;03;17 Unknown program. 00;02;03;17 - 00;02;05;14 Unknown That was right at the beginning of AEA. 00;02;05;17 - 00;02;06;22 Unknown The Renewable Energy Fund. 00;02;06;23 - 00;02;09;09 Unknown And so we applied for a matching grant and we got it 00;02;09;09 - 00;02;10;21 Unknown and it was $1,000,000. 00;02;10;21 - 00;02;11;20 Unknown And so we 00;02;11;20 - 00;02;13;24 Unknown added another million to that and we bought 00;02;13;24 - 00;02;16;18 Unknown first EWT turbine and it was ever put in Alaska. 00;02;16;18 - 00;02;17;19 Unknown And 00;02;17;19 - 00;02;18;22 Unknown two years later 00;02;18;22 - 00;02;20;07 Unknown we borrowed another 00;02;20;07 - 00;02;26;26 Unknown $1.9 million and put a second one in. And that's where I'd been capped since 2008, 00;02;26;29 - 00;02;30;17 Unknown The Army has been doing wind research near where you built your wind farm. Right. 00;02;30;18 - 00;02;37;06 Unknown they recorded wind events out of the south southeast, which is coming down the Tanana, 00;02;37;05 - 00;02;39;25 Unknown longest one that they ever documented, 00;02;39;24 - 00;02;42;13 Unknown 40 miles an hour for 14 consecutive days. 00;02;42;12 - 00;02;49;18 Unknown I've had longer wind events than that. In December of last year, I had a 67.1% capacity factor at the wind farm. 00;02;49;17 - 00;02;52;06 Unknown It was one day in December. I didn't make power 00;02;52;08 - 00;02;53;25 Unknown That's a really consistent wind. 00;02;53;26 - 00;02;57;14 Unknown meanwhile, the Alaska Energy Authority was getting all of our data. 00;02;57;14 - 00;02;58;11 Unknown And I started 00;02;58;11 - 00;03;01;01 Unknown having visitors at the Delta Wind farm from the 00;03;01;01 - 00;03;03;07 Unknown remote communities like Bethel and Nome 00;03;03;07 - 00;03;05;25 Unknown a couple other places where people came down and 00;03;05;25 - 00;03;07;18 Unknown and toured it and looked at the wind turbines. 00;03;07;18 - 00;03;07;26 Unknown And 00;03;07;26 - 00;03;08;22 Unknown so now we have 00;03;08;22 - 00;03;10;20 Unknown eight other EWTs in the state 00;03;10;20 - 00;03;11;27 Unknown and there's 30 plus 00;03;11;27 - 00;03;12;28 Unknown northern wind, hundreds 00;03;12;28 - 00;03;14;14 Unknown operating in the remote communities. 00;03;14;14 - 00;03;20;10 [Amanda Byrd] so you developed that Delta Wind farm, it became a model for other communities to build their systems. 00;03;21;25 - 00;03;23;09 [Mike Craft] The biggest issue was for Alaska no one in the wind world wanted to be involved in a project experienced 50 below. They were scared to death of it and for good reason because the towers have to be a different metal. Some of the components are built differently, you know, because of the expansion and contraction. It just so happened that the EWTs were direct drive turbines, so they didn't have transmissions and it just so happened that the colder it got, the better they ran. 00;03;46;17 - 00;03;51;00 Unknown Mike Craft is a managing partner and operator of Alaska Environmental Power. 00;03;51;01 - 00;03;52;00 Unknown And I'm Amanda Bird, 00;03;52;01 - 00;03;54;18 Unknown chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. 00;03;54;19 - 00;03;56;16 Unknown Find this story and more at ÐÔÓûÉç. 00;03;56;17 - 00;03;58;04 Unknown Dot edu forward slash 00;03;58;05 - 00;03;59;00 Unknown ACP.