Eagle, Alaska
June 2010
A 25 kW Low Flow unit was installed on the Yukon River at Eagle Alaska in June of 2010. The primary purpose of this project was to demonstrate a Diesel / Hybrid configuration for the community of Eagle. The hydrokinetic power from the New Energy turbine served to augment the existing diesel power plant, reduce diesel consumption and provide backup baseload power when the diesel power plant failed. This site experienced flow velocities close to the design point of 2.4 m/s with correspondingly high power output levels and led to new engineering to mitigate the potential of gearbox overheating. A 100-year flood event upstream of the site resulted in an unusually large amount of debris in the water. This was both a problem and an opportunity and led to new designs for debris protection in fast uncontrolled rivers such as the Yukon River.