Interior Alaska villages making plans to increase biomass use 

June 1, 2011

By Molly Rettig of the Fairbanks Daily News Miner: Some Interior villages are already sold on biomass. Community leaders shared how they harvest energy from the forests and rivers around them with roughly 200 attendees at the Alaska Wood Energy Conference on Wednesday.

“We are a rural community that wants to promote to other rural communities that this can be done,” Tanana city manager Bear Ketzler said.

The three-day event focused on various fuel types, technologies, environmental impacts and supply issues associated with wood energy.

The Tok School installed a wood chip-fired boiler in November that is fueled by local forest thinning projects and waste wood. Project leaders described the purpose and performance of the 5.5-million BTU steam boiler.

“It’s been pure savings,” said Scott MacManus, executive director for the Alaska Gateway School District.

The system should offset 65,000 gallons of heating fuel per year, saving $268,450. It was inspired by skyrocketing energy costs. The school district was spending $300,000 per year on heat and power and was forced to sacrifice music, art and other elective programs.

“This is why we’re involved in the wood business right now, because we have to do something to maintain the quality of education,” MacManus said. Read more

Lake and Pen Borough moves to lower power costs 

March 23, 2011

From the Bristol Bay Times: Grant money garnered from the Alaska Renewable Energy Fund will fund wood boilers for community buildings in Igiugig, Iliamna, Kokhanok and Port Alsworth, plus a wind turbine for Port Heiden, Lake and Peninsula Borough officials say.

In the latest round of energy fund grants, the borough received $369,000 for installation of wood boilers in the community buildings, and $250,000 for design and construction of Port Heiden’s wind turbine, said Borough Mayor Glen Alsworth Sr.

“The wood boilers and wind turbine are merely the latest efforts by the borough to implement alternative energy projects across the communities,” Alsworth said. “Our previous efforts, such as the Kokhanok wind turbine, have demonstrated to the state and other granting agencies that we are taking productive steps to address rising fuel costs in our borough,

“The borough has promised at least a 20 percent match for the two projects using borough funds, which shows that we are very serious about these projects and believe they are right moves at this time.”

For the wood boilers in Igiugig, Iliamna, Kokhanok and Port Alsworth, plans are to use locally and regionally sourced beetle kill spruce and other trees from the Lake Iliamna area, with the goal of sharply reducing the amount or even eliminating use of fuel oil to heat the buildings.

“The locally sourced wood is a key component of this project,” said Lamar Cotten, borough manager. Instead of using local funds to purchase imported fuel oil, residents and land owners now have the opportunity to keep that money in the community by harvesting local trees, he said. Read more

Biogas could bring new energy to rural Alaska 

January 18, 2011

By Jill Burke at Alaska Dispatch: Students at a small high school in Alaska are giving new meaning to the “new energy” mantra coined by onetime Gov. Sarah Palin. But instead of looking to extract oil and gas reserves, as pitched by Palin, scientists in the Last Frontier are pioneering advances in an alternate method of gas collection — the creation and harvest of methane — and Cordova teenagers are leading the way.

Cows burp it, their dung piles emit it and melting permafrost in Alaska and elsewhere is releasing once-trapped reserves of methane gas that are now escaping as land shifts and melts. Methane, a greenhouse gas that traps heat at rates much higher than carbon dioxide, is the byproduct of bacteria that create the gas as they dine on dying plants and other waste.

In findings released last year, University of Alaska scientist Dr. Katey Walter-Anthony discovered that the methane bubbling out of Alaska’s flaming arctic lakes is created by a cold-loving bacteria hard at work. Urban planner T.H. Culhane, who builds waste-eating contraptions called biodigesters to improve the lives of people living in urban slums and rural villages across the globe, thought Walter-Anthony’s discovery could help his mission by improving the efficiency of the small-scale biodigesters he teachers others to make using commonly available supplies. Their partnership, facilitated by National Geographic’s Emerging Explorers program, has resulted in an experiment, now in its second year, at Cordova High School, looking at whether Alaska’s cold-loving bacteria, called psychrophiles, can expand the temperature range at which traditional biodigesters — typically used in more temperate regions of the earth — operate.

Culhane believes the technology will work in rural Alaska. With plenty of fish waste, wood, food scraps and other organic materials available, the raw materials are in place. All that’s needed is the motivation. Read more

New wood energy project keeps Tok School warm 

December 6, 2010

By Molly Rettig of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: A new wood energy project in Tok has turned surrounding forests from a fire hazard into renewable fuel. The Tok School lit a new wood chip-fired boiler for the first time several weeks ago.
Read more

Fairbanks businessman eyes recyclable paper as a power source 

October 6, 2010

By Jeff Richardson of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner: When Bernie Karl surveys the bales of used cardboard and paper that are filling one of his warehouses at K&K Recycling, the Fairbanks businessman envisions a fuel source that will soon feed electricity into the local power grid. That dream took a big step forward a few days ago, when fledgling programs at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Fort Wainwright began providing a stream of recycled paper material to Karl’s business along the Richardson Highway. He expects another of his business interests, Chena Power, will be ready by the end of the year to transform that garbage into electricity. Karl plans to use new technology to make that happen — a 500 kilowatt biomass power plant that can burn woody biomass and recycled products from the landfill to make electricity.

“This is really a fun project,” Karl said. “When we get done, it’s going to be good for the community.” Read more

Sealaska ready to take on biomass at Juneau headquarters 

December 18, 2009

By Kim Marquis of the Juneau Empire: Sealaska corporate executives are banking on the sometimes-truth, “If you build it, they will come,” by making a commitment to biomass as an energy source. The company this month announced it will convert its Juneau headquarters from oil to a wood-fired boiler system. A stream of wood pellets will come from British Columbia until a regional provider can do it. Sealaska’s four-story building is too small to support the distribution system alone, so additional commercial building operators will have to follow Sealaska’s example and convert to biomass heat for the economics to work out. Read more

Craig sees savings with biomass, still working out kinks 

December 18, 2009

By Kim Marquis  of the Juneau Empire: An 18-month-old biomass plant in Craig is saving the city money on its heating bills, but the transition hasn’t been without complications, according to City Manager Jon Bolling. The plant in the small town on Prince of Wales Island is the only one operating in Southeast Alaska. It burns wood chips from a nearby sawmill to heat water that is piped through three municipal buildings previously heated with oil or propane. Read more