Alaska’s primary biomass fuels are wood, sawmill waste, fish byproducts and municipal waste. Wood remains an important renewable energy source for Alaskans. More than 100,000 cords of wood are burned in the form of cordwood, chips and pellets annually. Wood-heating systems in Alaska are creating local jobs and reducing the cost of building heat in remote communities throughout the state
The closure of major pulp mills in Sitka and Ketchikan in the 1990s ended large-scale, wood-fired power generation in Alaska. However, the price volatility of oil has raised interest in using sawdust and wood wastes for lumber drying, space heating and small-scale power production.
In 2010, the Tok School installed a chip-fired boiler, displacing approximately 65,000 gallons of fuel oil annually. Sealaska Corporation also installed the state’s first large-scale pellet boiler at its headquarters in Juneau in 2010. Since these two demonstration projects were operational, 50 additional projects have started up in the state using cordwood, chips and pellet technology. In 2017, the City of Galena started operating a chip system that is heating 14 Galena Interior Learning Academy (GILA) buildings, displacing more than 200,000 gallons of fuel oil annually. At the end of 2018, the Southeast Island School District on Prince of Wales Island had cordwood heating systems installed at all eight of its schools. Once schools have an affordable source of heating, they have installed greenhouses to grow food for school cafeterias and to expand math and science curriculum with hands-on learning. Students are learning math and chemistry as they grow lettuce in their school greenhouses, and students are eating fresh vegetables in their cafeterias.
Interest in manufacturing wood pellets continues to rise. Currently, there are small and large-scale plants operating in Alaska. The largest facility, Superior Pellets, is located in North Pole and is capable of producing an estimated 30,000 tons of pellets per year
Every year, ground fish processors in Unalaska, Kodiak and other locations produce approximately 8 million gallons of pollock oil as a byproduct of fishmeal plants. The oil is used as boiler fuel for drying the fishmeal or is exported to Pacific Rim markets for livestock and aquaculture feed supplements and other uses. In 2001, with assistance from the State of Alaska, processor UniSea Inc. conducted successful tests of raw fish oil/diesel blends in a 2.2-MW engine generator. Today, UniSea uses about 1.5 million gallons of fish oil a year to operate its generators, boilers and fishmeal dryers.
Many Alaskans use vegetable oils, recycled cooking oils and other animal fats to manufacture biodiesel engine fuels. In 2010, Alaska Waste opened the state’s first large-scale biodiesel refinery, producing up to 250,000 gallons annually from local restaurant vegetable oil waste. Alaska Waste operates 60-70 vehicles in its Anchorage service area fleet, and at peak production runs a 10/90 ratio of biodiesel to regular diesel across their fleet.
Alaskans generate approximately 650,000 tons of garbage per year. In 2012, the Municipality of Anchorage and Doyon Utilities commissioned a 5.6 MW methane power plant at the city’s landfill that provides more than 25 percent of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s electrical load.