AHERC at Work: Tanana River Hydrokinetic Test Site Update

Project Description:

AHERC’s Tanana River Hydrokinetic Test Site just outside of Nenana, Alaska, is playing host to a dramatic build out in the summer season of 2014.  The site is being upgraded with office facilities in the form of ATCO trailer units, power has been run to the location and a pontoon barge will be onsite to give hydrokinetic devices a platform on which to be tested in the river.  This effort is all taking place to support a busy testing season which will feature AHERC’s prototype debris diversion system and a hydrokinetic device owned by Oceana Energy Company being deployed into the Tanana River.

Project Update:

AHERC interns and research assistants have been working with Alaska Department of Fish and Game representative Parker Bradley recently helping to sample fish at the Tanana River Test Site.  Parker has been manning the fish trap the team has been utilizing 6 days a week while AHERC’s Nick Konefal and Jeff Roba have maintained an alternating work schedule at the location. 

Members of the team are now living at the Test Site in preparation for the deployment of other equipment into the river.

Photo: A research boat is docked behind the fish trap the team is using to sample fish while Parker Bradley takes a river velocity measurement.  Photo courtesy N. Konefal, ACEP/UAF.