Nestled in the wooded hills of the middle Kuskokwim River, the seasonal village of Napaimute bears little resemblance to its distant past as a supply and trade center for the region. But thanks to its namesake tribe, the tiny community remains a household name along the river for its array of enterprises – everything from milling lumber and barging, to monitoring fisheries and managing the Kuskokwim Ice Road.
"We're kind of a jack of all trades here in the middle part of the Kuskokwim when it comes to natural resources," said Dan Gillikin, environmental director for the Native Village of Napaimute for the past 13 years.
The latest project Gillikin has helped spearhead is the first of its kind on the Kuskokwim River – a hydrokinetic turbine that will be suspended just upriver from the village and deliver power in ice-free months when subsistence activities are in full swing.
The pilot project, funded by the United States Department of Energy, is scheduled to launch in Napaimute in June and is in partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and Oregon-based company BladeRunner Energy.
At the university’s Tanana River Hydrokinetic Test Site, Gillikin has had the opportunity to see the generator system in action. He said that he quickly realized Napaimute was a prime candidate for the technology, given the swift current that flows through a side channel where the turbine will be placed and clearly marked, well out of the way of Kuskokwim barge traffic.
"It seemed like it was a good fit for the testing of a smaller unit, and some of the licensing requirements were going to be less than other more established villages. So that's how we got into it," Gillikin said.
The pilot project will run from June through September. Gillikin, a retired fisheries biologist, will evaluate the turbine’s potential impacts to migrating salmon. Below the turbine, he’ll sample and closely inspect smolt headed for the ocean. And above, adult salmon harvested using a community fishwheel will need to pass a thorough visual inspection by local subsistence users.
"If those ladies are cutting fish and they're noticing something, I guarantee you I'm going to hear pretty quickly," Gillikin said.
Gillikin said that studies of hydrokinetic impacts to salmon, including on a much larger turbine project deployed in 2019 on the Kvichak River near Iguigig, have shown positive results. But amid recent declines for multiple Kuskokwim salmon runs, he said that caution is key.
"Any impact to the fisheries in any way is a game changer from our perspective," Gillikin said.
No single energy solution
If successful, Gillikin said that the project could be a step forward for the community. Due to aging solar infrastructure, he said that the busier upper section of Napaimute has become fully reliant on diesel generators at a time when fuel costs on the middle Kuskokwim hover around $10 per gallon.
The turbine used at Napaimute will only be able to power a handful of homes, but Gillikin said that the setup could be an ideal addition to the community’s microgrid.
"Between a new solar array and power system and integrating this new technology with the hydrokinetic turbine, our goal, my goal is to be 100% renewable," Gillikin said.
One of the major hurdles with developing in-river hydrokinetic projects in Alaska has been the onslaught of woody debris and sediment dished out by its waterways.
"Every major river is just megawatts of power flowing by all summer," said Ben Loeffler, a hydrokinetics researcher leading the project at UAF.
Loeffler has been working on solutions for years at the Tanana River test site and locations across Alaska.
"It’s very challenging. There hasn't been a single technology that's cropped up that's like, yeah, this will work anywhere," Loeffler said.
In trials, Loeffler said that the unique design of the BladeRunner system has shown its worth. Rather than have its rotor fixed in place, the large propeller-like device is attached to the end of a flexible 20-foot shaft that also spins with the current, allowing the rotor to brush off whatever comes its way.
"In the five summers of testing, we've never had any debris hang up on their system, which has been pretty exciting," Loeffler said.
Loeffler said that if the project in Napaimute is successful, it’ll be between the tribe and turbine company to decide whether the community continues to use a turbine to meet its power needs.
BladeRunner president and CEO Moriel Arango said BladeRunner has been fully reliant on federal grants for its funding, and he hopes that the Napaimute project can be a milestone.
"The sole purpose all along has been to develop something that's small enough that you can transport to these remote areas, but that it's large enough for it to be meaningful," Arango said.
While there is no single energy solution for remote off-the-road system communities, Gillikin believes the addition of hydrokinetic power in Napaimute alongside advances in other renewables could help usher in a new era.
"That is going to, I think, play heavily into revitalizing the community, and people wanting and having the ability to spend more time up there and eventually resettling the village, you know, permanently," Gillikin said.
For now, all that the people of Napaimute and the researchers eager to prove the usefulness of the BladeRunner system can do is wait for break-up on the Kuskokwim.
