Anchorage Assembly to consider $700,000 to start designing trash-burning power plant

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday will consider paying engineering firm HDR Inc. up to $700,000 to start designing a plant that would burn the city's garbage to make electricity.

HDR's early design would give the project's construction and operations managers enough detail to estimate what the plant would cost to build and run, according to the Assembly memo. The city would use that estimate to judge whether the project is financially viable and to work out how to pay for it.

The memo says the overall cost range is still being developed. For now, the city has a planning-level estimate, published in May, that puts the total at about $750 million.

The plant would generate about 25 to 30 megawatts of electricity, the project's program director told an Assembly committee in May, Alaska News reported Aug. 6. It would extend the life of the Anchorage Regional Landfill, the city's only operating landfill, by about 100 years, according to an April 2025 Assembly resolution supporting the project. The landfill has less than 70 years of space left, according to the city's solid waste plan.

The plant would also be designed to take the solids left over from treating sewage, which the city's water and wastewater utility now burns in its own incinerator. The resolution says that would save the utility about $100 million it would otherwise need to spend to decommission that incinerator, plus more than $3 million a year in operating costs.

The $750 million estimate comes from a May update to the city's solid waste master plan, prepared by consultant Tetra Tech. After subtracting the $100 million in incinerator savings, the plan assumes the city would borrow about $650 million. Repaying that over 30 years at about 5% interest would cost about $42 million to $43 million a year, the plan estimates.

The plan projects the plant would bring in enough, after operating costs, to cover about 97% to 100% of those payments, short of the cushion the plan sets as a target. Closing the gap through landfill fees alone would mean raising them by about $45 to $50 a ton, or about $7 to $8 a month for a household, the plan says. It recommends a mix of measures instead, and says every $50 million in grants would cut the yearly payments by about $3.25 million.

The plan says the city should go ahead with construction only if it can show a workable path to permits, acceptable effects on ratepayers, secured or well-defined revenue and a guaranteed maximum price for building the plant. It calls the air permit a critical step.

The award doesn't guarantee HDR any later work, the memo says. Further design, permitting and carrying out the project would each need separate Assembly approval.

HDR scored highest of four firms that applied. The contract is on the Assembly's consent agenda, and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration recommends approval. It would be paid from Solid Waste Services capital money and run through June 2027.

The Assembly backed the project in a resolution in April 2025. It called for $5 million from Solid Waste Services and $3 million from the water utility toward site selection, an economic analysis, permitting, public outreach and design, with a go-or-no-go decision by the Assembly at each step. A 2020 feasibility study for the city recommended mass-burn incineration, assuming a plant that would handle 1,000 to 1,200 tons of trash a day.

The city is also seeking outside money for early work. It has asked the state for $2 million from the Renewable Energy Fund, and U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has requested $1 million in federal money to design and permit the plant. The city has also asked Congress for about 50 acres of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson land next to the landfill as a site.