TEAMER: Tidal energy resource modeling assessment and environmental biological analysis in Turnagain Arm, Cook Inlet, AK

The deployment and operation of a floating and/or submerged tidal technology in the United States coastal water require characterizing tidal stream resource potential and assessing environmental conditions and satisfying all environmental permitting requirements. The waters of Cook Inlet, Alaska have some of the strongest and most consistent tidal currents in the U.S. This project seeks to examine the potential for tidal energy development in Turnagain Arm, an inlet between Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula, in the upper Cook Inlet. The technical assistance provided under this award is intended to examine the tidal currents and assess those that are most suitable for tidal energy development through validated numerical models, and to assess the optimal tidal turbine deployment areas within Turnagain Arm from an environmental, logistic, and regulatory perspective. Areas that are best suited for bottom based and floating tidal technologies will be considered. As part of the deliverables for this Teamer project, the data uploaded includes GIS shape files of mean tidal current speed, power density, bathymetry, and additional environmental parameters such as ship routes, critical habitats etc. Two days of FVCOM output files for the baseline condition and three turbine farm scenarios are also included.