Shovel Creek Wind can save GVEA members hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel costs
Alaska Renewables built a custom power plant dispatch model of Golden Valley Electric Association's system, using publicly available data GVEA filed with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska or presented in its public board meeting materials. We ran this model across hundreds of scenarios to explore how Shovel Creek Wind could lower costs for GVEA members.
120 MW of Shovel Creek Wind, on its own
Headline results for GVEA's own mid fuel-price projections.
Present value of savings
To GVEA members over the 30-year project life.
Saved per year
Levelized annual savings (2025 dollars), about 1.9¢ per kWh.
Per household, per year
Typical residential member savings.
Of GVEA's energy mix
Share of the energy GVEA serves that Shovel Creek wind would supply.
Oil displaced per year
Diesel and naphtha GVEA would not need to burn.
CO₂ avoided per year
About 4.9 million tons over 30 years.
Change the wind build, battery storage, fuel prices and other assumptions yourself in the interactive dashboard:
How we modeled it
Alaska Renewables developed a custom power plant dispatch model to advance our understanding of the economic impact of wind energy on GVEA's system, and to identify the best opportunities to save members money under a wide variety of potential scenarios.
Shovel Creek Wind is a project originated by Alaska Renewables and now owned by a major US investor, owner and operator of multiple GW of renewable power projects across the country. This economic analysis was developed by Alaska Renewables using publicly available fuel and generation cost information filed by GVEA with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska; it is not a GVEA study.
The results assume no federal tax credits for Shovel Creek wind. Headline figures above use 120 MW of Shovel Creek wind with a 25 MW battery, operational enablers, surplus sales at 12¢/kWh, and GVEA's mid fuel-price projection.
Have a question about our methods or data? See the details in the dashboard or get in touch.