Results: Calendar of Events
July 8, 2010
8:30 am to 2:30 pm
Lean & Green Workshop July 8, 8:30AM – 2:30 PM BP Energy Center
Learn the proven techniques used by industrial, commercial and public entities to save costs, improve customer value, and empower employees. At the end of the day you will have the tools to go back to your shop and do at least five things right now that will cut costs while reducing environmental impacts. Plus, we will show you how to easily combine these ‘Lean & Green’ techniques into a sustainability plan for your firm. For more event info, click here.
June 21, 2010
By Tim Bradner at the Alaska Journal of Commerce: Gov. Sean Parnell is taking flak for his June 3 vetoes of state funds for energy projects.
“The governor has talked a lot about how we have to be fiscally conservative, but these are projects that will make our communities more self-reliant and less dependent on diesel, and state Power Cost Equalization funds, in five to 10 years,” when petroleum revenues will be sharply lower, said Bob Venables, energy director for the Southeast Conference, the economic development association for Southeast Alaska.
Parnell slashed a number of renewable energy projects, cutting $25 million of a $50 million appropriation to the state’s renewable energy grant program; reducing $16.7 million for the Whitman Lake hydro project near Ketchikan to $1 million; cutting $15 million in funding for the expansion of Sitka’s Blue Lake hydro project to $6 million; eliminating $7 million for Homer Electric Association for a wind project near Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula; and reducing a $2 million appropriation for Naknek Electric Association’s geothermal project to $750,000. Read more
June 19, 2010
By Len Anderson at KSKA: Alaska Waste showed off its new biodiesel plant today at its South Anchorage facility. It’s the first commercially-sized operation of its size in the state and will be used to help fuel the refuse company’s truck fleet. (The company is collecting used cooking oil from local restaurants and food servers and will use it to replace at least some of the 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel a week its fleet of trucks had been burning). Hear more
June 19, 2010
From Chistina Grande at KTVA-TV: For the first time, Alaska now has a statewide energy policy to help achieve the goal of getting 50 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2025. On June 16, Governor Sean Parnell, R-Alaska, signed House Bill 306 and Senate Bill 220, both of which help set and implement energy policies for Alaska for many years to come. “This legislation sets in statute a state energy policy to meet Alaska’s current and future energy needs,” said Parnell. Read more
June 19, 2010
From Rhonda McBride at KTUU-TV: Alaska generates about 24 percent of its electricity from renewable energy, but a new law signed by Gov. Sean Parnell this week sets a goal of doubling that percentage by 2025. Can we do it? And is it worth it? Those are questions being asked at a Business of Clean Energy conference being held in Anchorage’s Dena’ina Center this week.
“It’s really a time to be thinking big, and it’s a time to be creative and a time to get this to scale,” said Joel Makower, executive editor of green.biz.com.
Makower certainly sounds like an Alaskan, but his website is based in Oakland, Calif., one of the magnet cities for America’s green revolution. He says Alaska could be on the map, but first Alaskans have to ask themselves a simple question: What would it take?
“A lot of it has to do with willpower, and vision and leadership — because ultimately, that’s what it takes,” Makower said.
There are signs that those ingredients are present at the conference. The Kodiak Electric Association has one of the biggest success stories in Alaska: its Pillar Mountain wind farm, which generates about 9 percent of Kodiak’s electricity since coming on line in 2009. That’s saved about 830,000 gallons of diesel fuel — at $3 a gallon, a savings of about $2.4 milion. Read more
June 18, 2010
Note: Klaus Mayer was a speaker at REAP’s Business of Clean Energy in Alaska conference.
By Ellen Lockyer at KSKA: The little, snow-covered log cabin, seen often as a symbol of Alaska, is fast becoming an icon of the past. These days, Alaskans are seeking energy efficiency in their residential and commercial buildings. Klaus Mayer, a partner in the architectural firm of Mayer Sattler Smith, works with climate and culture – and technical innovations — to design affordable, sustainable homes for Alaskans. Hear more
June 18, 2010
From KTVA: Today’s 2010 Business of Clean Energy Conference is helping to bring the cutting edge of clean energy development to the last frontier. The Dena’ina Center in downtown Anchorage is hosting the two-day conference designed to bring business people and government people together. The goal is to strengthen the dialogue between both groups and identify opportunities for energy efficiency and renewable energy development here in the Alaska. Read more
June 16, 2010
By Margaret Bauman for the Bristol Bay Times: High fuel prices and uncertainty about where future power will come from is the focus of a clean energy conference, coming on the heels of a veto by Gov. Sean Parnell of half of the $50 million legislators approved for the Alaska Renewable Energy Grant Fund. The 2010 Business of Clean Energy in Alaska conference, organized by the Renewable Energy Alaska Project, is designed to show Alaska’s leaders how to build a more sustainable energy future for the state, and tap into the worldwide $155 billion-a-year clean energy market.
The event, slated for June 17-18 at the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage, will feature notable renewable energy and energy efficiency experts from Alaska, the Lower 48, Canada and Iceland. Conference information is at www.BCEAconference.com
“Since Alaska has high energy costs, a relatively inefficient housing stock, a cold climate and abundant renewable energy resources, we have both the incentive and the opportunity to make clean energy a significant part of our economy,” said Chris Rose, executive director of REAP.
Still Rose and others, including Meera Kohler, president and chief executive officer of the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, which serves 53 communities in Interior and Western Alaska, were reeling in shock from Parnell’s decision to veto $25 million of the $50 million approved by legislators for renewable energy projects. Read more
June 16, 2010
From Dave Donaldson at APRN: Governor Parnell will sign into law two bills on Wednesday (June 16) that were written to set the state on a course of meeting its own energy needs. Although, the state has a long way to go to reach its potential, the plans still give targets. Hear more
June 14, 2010
From the U.S. Dept. of Energy: The U.S. Department of Energy announced today that 20 communities, including Tanana, have been selected for more than $60 million in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to implement local energy efficiency and renewable energy programs that will reduce energy use by American homes, vehicles, and businesses. Local governments, nonprofit organizations, and quasi-governmental organizations are among the recipients for the competitive grants, administered under the Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) program. (Tanana was selected to receive a $1.5 million grant)
“These projects will stimulate the economy and create jobs on the main streets of local communities across the nation through innovative investments in energy conservation, efficiency, and renewable power generation,” said Under Secretary of Energy Kristina Johnson. “We already have proven technologies to reduce energy use at home and at work. These projects will provide access to those tools for more Americans, saving money for thousands of families and businesses.” Read more
