The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Sept. 25 said that it will take for 60 days any comments, offers of intervention and competing preliminary permit applications for a hydropower project in Alaska.
On Sept. 3, Green Power Development LLC filed an application for a preliminary permit, proposing to study the feasibility of the Lake 3160 Hydroelectric Project to be located on Lake 3160 near Juneau in Juneau Borough, Alaska. The sole purpose of a preliminary permit, if issued, is to grant the permit holder priority to file a license application during the three-year permit term. The project would occupy about 475 acres of lands within the Tongass National Forest managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
The proposed project would use the existing natural lake, named Lake 3160, with a surface areas of 451 acres, storage capacity of 19,710 acre-feet, and normal water surface elevation of 3,160 feet above mean sea level.
It would consist of the following new facilities:
- a siphon intake, directional bore, or 20-foot-high concrete dam with either intakes at the exit of Lake 3160;
- an above-ground 8,800-feet-long, 20- to 24-inch-diameter penstock;
- a powerhouse containing one or two generating units with a total installed capacity of 4.995 MW;
- an open-channel tailrace discharging flows to Evelyn Lake; and
- a 7.6-mile-long, 14.4/24.9-kV overhead, underground, or submarine cable transmission line.
The average annual energy production would be 40 gigawatt-hours.
The applicant contact is: Joel Groves, Green Power Development LLC, 1503 W. 33rd Avenue, #310, Anchorage, Alaska, 99503; phone: (907) 258-2420, extension 204.
