ALASKA RESOURCE REVIEW WINTER 2025 40 Site near Skwentna would add power source, reduce imports of LNG BY TIM BRADNER A $2 BILLION-PLUS COAL-FIRED POWER PLANT PROPOSED NEAR SKWENTNA, IN THE WESTERN MATANUSKA-SUSITNA BOROUGH, IS GAINING TRACTION. The Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA) is looking to aid development of the project proposed by Flatlands Energy Corporation, which has been exploring coal resources in the area for several years. Flatlands holds coal leases on state-owned lands, which it has held since 2018. In a January briefing on energy issues held by Gov. Mike Dunleavy, AIDEA Executive Director Randy Ruaro said the authority is considering helping in the early-stage financing of coal projects, and that Flatlands is of them. AIDEA is the state’s development finance corporation that works to diversify the state’s economy by investing in infrastructure for industrial development including mining along with oil and gas. The authority also works in partnership with commercial banks to assist commercial real estate development. Some local residents get the proposed coal project confused with the West Susitna road project, a 99-mile industrial road also being led by AIDEA. The two proposals are not connected, at least directly. Having a road would no doubt benefit construction of the coal plant but the development does not depend on a road, sources familiar with the project say. Chugach Electric Association’s Beluga power plant on the west side of Cook Inlet, for example, is “roadless,” having been built in the 1960s without a surface transportation link. Sixty years later, there is still no road to Beluga. What would be built for the power plant, if it is constructed, are electrical transmission lines that would bring the new coal power to Beluga to connect with the existing “railbelt” electrical grid. There also would be a pipeline built to transport carbon dioxide, or CO2, extracted from the coal plant’s emissions. The plant would employ carbon capture technology, which has been proven to be feasible, and would move the CO2 by pipeline to the existing Beluga gas field where the gas would be injected underground for permanent storage. The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been working with Flatlands with research on the economics of the coal plant using carbon capture. The university’s work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under former President Joe Biden. The university is now working on technical aspects of injecting and storing the CO2 in the Beluga gas field reservoir, also funded by the Department of Energy. Another carbon capture project is planned on the North Slope where Santos, Ltd. is developing the new Pikka oilfield. Santos has a corporate policy for Pikka to be “carbon free” when it starts production in 2026 through a combination of carbon credits purchased with forest owners and a project to inject CO2 underground in an underused North Slope oil reservoir. So far, the economics of the Flatlands project, with the CO2 capture, look favorable, according to the university’s research. It appears that the coal power generated and transported to Beluga would be less expensive than power generated with liquefied natural gas, or LNG, imported to Southcental Alaska from outside Alaska. Utilities in the region are looking to import LNG to supplement natural gas from Cook Inlet gas fields, which are declining. A new coal-fired power plant would reduce the need for imports. Flatlands has been working on its coal leases in the area for six years and has been engaged gathering environmental data to support mining in addition to drilling and mapping the coal resource. The company has LIDAR data and information on surface and ground water, snow cover and local wetlands, as well as fisheries resources. The coal is sub-bituminous with low sulfur, similar to the Nenana coal fields where Usibelli Mines, Inc. now operates its coal mine at Healy. PROPOSED COAL-FIRED PLANT GAINS TRACTION The University of Alaska Fairbanks has been working with Flatlands with research on the economics of the coal plant using carbon capture. The university’s work was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under former President Joe Biden. The university is now working on technical aspects of injecting and storing the CO2 in the Beluga gas field reservoir, also funded by the Department of Energy.
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