Results: Calendar of Events
April 30, 2010
By Katharine Q. Seelye of the New York Times: After nine years of regulatory review, the federal government gave the green light on Wednesday to the nation’s first offshore wind farm, a fiercely contested project off the coast of Cape Cod. Opponents said they would continue to fight construction of the farm, known as Cape Wind, which would sprawl across 25 square miles of Nantucket Sound. But the decision is expected to give a significant boost to the nascent offshore wind industry in the United States, which has lagged far behind Europe and China in harnessing the strong and steady power of ocean breezes to electrify homes and businesses. Read more
May 12, 2010
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
6-8 p.m. at the Anchorage Museum auditorium
Want to make your business more energy efficient and save money? Come join Renewable Energy Alaska Project’s Free forum from 6-8 p.m., May 12 at the Anchorage Museum auditorium. Hear from local businesses like Arctic Wire Rope & Supply, and the Performing Arts Center about how they cut their energy use by up to 40% by thinking smart about lighting and heating. Also on hand will be state experts to talk about what resources are available for your business. More info at (907) 929-7770 or email s.nowers@realaska.org. For those who can’t attend, there will be an opportunity to listen in live or download a podcast after the event. To listen in live, sign up at https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/474266105
Presenters:
Eric McCallum, Owner, Arctic Wire Rope & Supply
Nancy Harbour, Exec. Dir., Performing Arts Center
Sean Skaling, Energy Efficiency & Conservation Program Manager, AK Energy Authority
April 30, 2010
From the Associated Press: Most Americans are paying about $3 a gallon for gas. The residents of McGrath, Alaska, saw their gas prices jump by that amount in one night. The price at the only pump in the remote town 415 miles northwest of Anchorage went from $6 a gallon Friday to $9.20 the next day. Crowley Petroleum Distribution says it was forced to raise the price because the winter nearly drained the town’s supply, and the only option was to fly in more fuel. The cost increase is the difference between flying the gasoline and shipping it on a barge. Crowley says it won’t be able to send a barge until June at the earliest. Read more
April 30, 2010
By Christopher Eshleman at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: Fort Yukon could turn to wood-fired power to ease its reliance on diesel fuel. Tanana could install wind turbines and start using half as much fuel within a few years.The Alaska Energy Authority published those scenarios and about 200 more, including cost estimates, this week. The report comes less than a month after the Legislature set, as official state policy, the target of using wind turbines, hydroelectric dams and other renewable projects for at least half Alaska’s electricity by 2025.
“This gives you the pathway to get there,” said Steve Haagenson, director of the authority. Read more
The agency released the report, an “energy pathway,” to coincide with a three-day rural energy conference in Fairbanks that ended Thursday.
May 25, 2010
May 25 – June 5 UAF log home building workshop at the Palmer Center for Sustainable Living.
The workshop will appeal to anyone interested in building or renovating energy efficient, quality log structures in Alaska. (Pictured at right are students in a similar workshop held in Sitka in 2008.)
Robert W. Chambers of New Zealand, world-recognized authority for handcrafted log home construction, will lead the sessions. He is the author of The Log Construction Manual: The Ultimate Guide to Building Handcrafted Log Homes. Chambers has been building log homes sine 1983 and teaching log construction since 1988. He has written numerous magazine articles and invented log construction methods, products, and machinery. In 2006 the International Log Builders Association presented Chambers with its grand achievement award, awarded only three times in the organization’s thirty-year history. Mike Musick and his son, Richard, from Fairbanks, will also be instructing. Musick has worked in construction in Alaska for over forty years and has been building energy-efficient custom homes in interior Alaska for thirty years. His son Richard works with his dad in the family business, Ester Construction.
Basic procedures and techniques will be described and practiced to help even the novice log builder get started with a project. Building an energy-efficient log home requires the highest level of craftsmanship to meet modern standards of air-tightness, indoor air quality, safety, comfort, and durability. The class is a hands-on experience, with students actually constructing a cabin of aspen logs on Trunk Road where the Matanuska Experiment Farm has its summer garden area.
The class will run from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, with a break for the Memorial Day weekend. A maximum of 12 students will be accepted. Cost is $650 if registered by April 30 and $800 after that. Contact Valerie Barber, director UAF Forest Products Program, 907-746-9466 or vabarber@alaska.edu.
Further reading:
A Log Cabin Building Workshop, Agroborealis, Spring 2009, page 6-14, by Valerie Barber (PDF)
May 8, 2010
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm
NEW COURSE! NEW MANUAL!
RETHINK YOUR HOME TO INCLUDE
LOW-ENERGY AND SOLAR OPTIONS
WHERE: Anchorage , Alaska (UAA CAMPUS)
WHEN: SATURDAY, MAY 8, 2010
1:00-5:00 PM
COST: $15 FOR SOLAR DESIGN MANUAL
CALL: 786-6300 to register
COURSE TAUGHT BY:
UAF COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
ENERGY AND HOUSING SPECIALIST
RICHARD SEIFERT
April 26, 2010
By Kate Troll in the Juneau Empire: The Alaska Legislature passed two bills critical to securing Alaska’s energy future, and neither had anything to do with the natural gas pipeline. I believe that 10 years from now, the 2010 Legislative Session will be remembered not for the $3 billion capital budget or the rollback on cruise ship tax but for the year they passed the Alaska Sustainable Energy Act (SB 220) and the State Energy Policy (HB 306). These two measures will have far-reaching consequences for all of Alaska’s communities, while at the same time establishing Alaska as a leader in the global market for clean energy.
“I’m thrilled that the Legislature came together to pass such substantial and important energy legislation,” said Sen. Bill Wielechowski D-Anchorage, co-chair of the Resources Committee. “It lays the foundation for Alaska to become a global leader in renewable energy and energy efficiency, and tasks the state with leading by example.” Read more
April 24, 2010
By Tim Bradner at the Alaska Journal of Commerce: Legislators brought a productive 2010 session to an orderly close a few minutes past midnight April 18. The adjournment was without the fireworks and blowups of past legislative closeouts, all the more remarkable given the tight 90-day session. Calm and collegial manners of House Speaker Mike Chenault, Senate President Gary Stevens and Gov. Sean Parnell are given credit for the smooth ending. Major accomplishments of the session included energy and campaign-reform legislation. Sens. Lesil McGuire and Bill Wielechowski steered a major energy omnibus bill, Senate Bill 220, through to passage, combining several initiatives in energy conservation and new technologies. The House pushed through a state energy policy bill in House Bill 306, primarily the work of Reps. Charisse Millet, R-Anchorage, Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham and others in the House. Read more
Also more details about this energy legislation on REAP’s Hot Issues page
April 23, 2010
By Kyle Hopkins at the Anchorage Daily News: Two prototype homes, one designed for the state’s wind-beaten coast and one for the Arctic, will be built in remote villages this summer as researchers look for low-cost answers to the housing crunch in rural Alaska. In rainy Quinhagak, where a recent report found that dozens of 1970s-era houses may be rotting and potentially unsafe to live in, the village plans to build an easy-to-heat, eight-sided home meant to resemble traditional Yup’ik dwellings. The three-bedroom house could cut energy bills by 50 percent and cost as little as $200,000 to build, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Cold Climate Housing Research Center. Read more
April 23, 2010
Microsoft founder Bill Gates in the Washington Post: This country runs on innovation. The American success story — from Ben Franklin’s bifocals to Thomas Edison’s light bulb to Henry Ford’s assembly line to today’s advanced microprocessors — is all about inventing our future. The companies we ran, Microsoft and DuPont, were successful because they invested deeply in new technologies and new ideas.But our country is neglecting a field central to our national prospect and security: energy. Although the information technology and pharmaceutical industries spend 5 to 15 percent of their revenue on research and development each year, U.S. companies’ spending on energy R&D has averaged only about one-quarter of 1 percent of revenue over the past 15 years. Read more
