North Dakota study promoting new coal plant presented as UAF study. Why?

There are assumptions piled on assumptions and monumental subsidies in a so-called University of Alaska Fairbanks study proposing a coal-fired power plant in Southcentral Alaska to replace natural gas.

I say so-called because on page 2 of the report, it says the document was prepared by the Energy & Environmental Research Center of the University of North Dakota. It says that “economic results were developed by UAF with guidance from EERC,” the research center of the University of North Dakota.

Here is the study from the North Dakota group.

The federal grant went to the University of North Dakota.

UAF and the University of Wyoming are subcontractors on the grant, UAF for $384,000 and Wyoming for $330,000. I have asked UAF for its contract with North Dakota.

I have asked UAF officials why this study was presented as a UAF study, the topic of the lead story in the Anchorage Daily News today, when it was a North Dakota study funded under a federal grant to a North Dakota entity with participation by UAF.

I will update this post as I find out more.

The North Dakota/UAF study reads more like a sales pitch for the Flatlands Energy Corporation than an objective analysis or in-depth research paper.

“Flatlands Energy’s existing proven reserves of clean (low ash, metal, and mercury content and ultralow sulfur content) coal, when coupled with well-understood biomass-coal power generation technology with carbon capture, can contribute to meeting the electricity needs of the Alaska Railbelt within the necessary time frame,” the study says.

Flatlands Energy is owned by the Alaska Asia Clean Energy Corporation in Canmore, Alberta. The state corporations database only lists the Alaska Asia Clean Energy Corporation as an expired business name.

Alaska Asia Clean Energy Corporation filed this application for coal exploration in an area west of Skwentna on June 8, 2022. Bob Loeffler is listed as a partner.

Alaska Asia Clean Energy is led by president Robert Power of Alberta.

One of the major investors in Alaska Asia Clean Energy Corporation/Flatlands Energy is Nova Minerals, one of the companies pressing the state to spend hundreds of millions to build the West Susitna Access Road to access a proposed gold mine.

Nova is mentioned in the North Dakota/UAF study as a potential customer of the power plant.

Nova Minerals loaned nearly $1 million to the Alaska Asia Clean Energy Corporation, according to the 2023 annual report. Nova also says it has an investment in the company worth $205,000.

At a minimum, the North Dakota/UAF study should have disclosed the Nova Minerals loan and investment in Alaska Asia Clean Energy Corporation.

The North Dakota/UAF study says that Flatlands has coal reserves 18 miles southwest of Skwenta that will last “for 150 years or more” and assumes that a mine will be built. The coal leases are about 70 miles northwest of Anchorage.

As far as other assumptions go, they include the notion that the so-called West Susitna Access Road will be built shortly, that the coal will be cheap, that carbon capture and storage will work, that the Donlin mine and other projects will go forward, that permits will be approved and this will be the “first low carbon to carbon neutral mining district in the world.”

A federal subsidy, in the form of tax credits, would be worth $2.7 billion for a 400 megawatt powerplant.

Frank Paskvan, who lives in Anchorage, is listed as the lead author on the front page for UAF and the Institute of Northern Engineering.

Paskvan told legislators last week that coal from the mine that has not been approved, financed or built could be from one-quarter to half the price of natural gas, half the cost of wind power supported with natural gas and much less than diesel or imported natural gas. Here is that slide.

Here is the legislative hearing at which Paskvan presented the study.

The front page of the study lists the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership as a sponsor. The website of the Plains CO2 Reduction Partnership has yet to list the Alaska project, however.

The University of North Dakota leads the partnership, with support from the University of Wyoming and UAF.

UAF received a $9 million federal grant to study whether the carbon capture idea of using an old natural gas field would work for a coal-fired power plant. UAF, backed by Dunleavy, is seeking $2 million from the state as matching funds. The federal application for that grant contains some of the same information as the Cook Inlet research report from North Dakota.

The application says that Friends of West Susitna, a group promoting the West Susitna Road plan, will provide the equivalent of $40,000 worth of outreach to villages to promote the project.

Flatlands is providing “cost share of $68,736” to promote the project. That’s not much.

The 45Q tax credits alone for carbon storage, remember, could be worth $2.7 billion,

Federal subsidies “provide a financial incentive for Flatlands Energy to make these investments and provide returns to its shareholders that may not otherwise be available,” the UAF application said. “This provides diversification to Flatlands Energy’s portfolio of services that can benefit stakeholders long-term.”

Flatlands Energy should put up the $2 million in matching funds.

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