Rural Energy Conference Spots Hope in Alternative Fuels
May 24 - Alaska Journal of Commerce
There appears to be no easy fix, or maybe any fix at all, for sky- high fuel and electricity costs in the hundreds of small communities scattered across rural areas of Alaska.
But there were glimmers of hope that perked up the 300 people attending the
Alaska Rural Energy Conference in Talkeetna April 27 through 29.
New technologies on the horizon, with a little help from the government,
could ease the problem in at least some communities, the conference was told.
The conference, the second of its kind, was sponsored jointly by the
University of Alaska Fairbanks, the Alaska Energy Authority and the U.S.
Department of Energy. Most of those attending were managers and operations
supervisors from approximately 90 electric utilities that operate across the
state.
Among workshops on improved diesel engine maintenance and bulk fuel storage
improvements were briefings on new sources of energy, as well as more efficient
use of traditional sources.
One innovation could take shape next summer at Fort Yukon, a community of 300
on the Yukon River north of Fairbanks where heating oil costs $4 a gallon and
electricity 45 cents a kilowatt hour, about four times what consumers pay for
fuel and power in larger Alaska communities like Anchorage and Fairbanks.
Approximately 1,200 feet below the community there are 60-foot coal seams
which contain natural gas coal bed methane. The question is whether the gas
could generate power and heat homes in the village.
Fort Yukon hopes to find out. State and federal agencies have a test drilling
program planned this summer to determine if there is enough gas in the coal to
be a viable local fuel, the energy conference was told.
Gas in the coal below the community was found accidentally in 1984 when U.S.
Geological Survey crew encountered it while drilling a core hole to test
sediments as part of a government-sponsored research on climate change. When
cores from the coal were brought to surface, gas began escaping from the coal.
Not equipped to deal with gas, the crew shut the hole.
Ever since then villagers at Fort Yukon have talked about the gas beneath
their village. Now, 20 years later, the state Division of Geological and
Geophysical Surveys with support from the U.S. Department of Energy is now going
back to see if the coal seams are capable of producing enough gas for the
community.
Even if the coal is capable of producing gas there is a lot of work to be
done, according to Jim Clough, a geologist with the state Division of Geological
and Geophysical Surveys.
More drilling will be needed to define the local geology and determine, among
other things, whether there are permeable layers of underground rock where water
produced with the coal-seam gas can be injected, Clough told the energy
conference.
Coal bed methane is controversial in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough and Kenai
Peninsula, but rural residents have supported the idea if it can be done safely,
Clough said. The division's research shows that coal-bed methane could be a
viable local fuel source in 40 rural villages, he said.
Power from above
Not all energy resources are to be found underground. There are other sources
of local energy, like wind. The wind blows a lot in many rural communities, and
while wind is no panacea for energy problems it can be an important help, the
conference was told.
Kotzebue Electric Association is in the lead in rural wind-power development,
according to Eric Yould, executive director of the Alaska Power Association. The
utility generates 8 percent of its annual power requirements and at times up to
20 percent from 13, 66kilowatt turbines and one 100-kilowatt turbine near the
northwest Arctic community. Because it is difficult to store electricity
generated during strong winds, it can only supplement power generated in
Kotzebue's 11-megawatt diesel plant, Yould said.
Even with wind power, Kotzebue's rates for electricity are about twice what
they are in the state's urban communities, Yould told the rural energy
conference.
Still, wind saves the Kotzebue utility about 90,000 gallons of diesel fuel
annually, according to information from the Alaska Power Association.
One man's garbage is another man's power
Other sources of local energy, like community waste, can be tapped in rural
villages. In a session on potential biomass projects, Peter Crimp, energy
project manager for the Alaska Energy Authority, estimated that each Alaska
resident creates a ton of garbage per year. That is a source of potential
energy, Crimp said.
The Alaska Energy Authority and the state Department of Environmental
Conservation will publish a guide to small-scale waste combustion later this
year, Crimp said. It is intended for use in rural communities.
Meanwhile, municipal landfills in larger communities like Anchorage could be
the source of methane, or natural gas, Crimp told the conference. The
Municipality of Anchorage is studying a small- scale power generation project
using methane from the municipal landfill, he said.
Wood burning, old but not outdated
Wood burning is an ancient energy technology that still heats homes across
Alaska. In the gold rush era wood was also a primary source of fuel for power
generation in Alaska, Crimp said. In 1890 there was about 50 megawatts
electricity generated yearly in Southeast Alaska that was fueled by wood, he
told the conference.
About 100,000 cords of wood are burned each year in Alaska, mostly for home
heating, he told the conference. This is the equivalent of 15 million gallons of
No. 2 diesel, used commonly for heating, he said.
There are opportunities for improved efficiency of wood burning, however.
David Nicholls of the U.S. Forest Service's wood utilization laboratory in Sitka
told the conference his agency is working with the Southeast village of Hoonah
on using new types of wood-burning furnaces to burn sawmill waste and heat
schools and community buildings.
Hoonah residents now pay 30 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, three
times the rates in large Alaska communities, and pay $1.40 per gallon for
heating oil.
If waste from a local sawmill could be used to heat seven larger buildings
including three schools in Hoonah, it would reduce diesel fuel usage by 65,000
gallons a year and reduce the community's fuel bill by $9 1,000 a year,
according to a study the Forest Service and the community had done.
Although the savings would be partly offset by $53,500 in operating costs of
the wood burning furnaces, most of the expenditure is in labor, which creates
local wages, Nicholls said. There would still be a net $37,600 annual savings in
community fuel costs, he said.
The forest service is engaged in a similar study on the Kenai Peninsula,
using timber killed by insects, Nicholls told the conference.
Fuel cells still developing
Fuel cells, devices that produce electricity through a chemical reaction, may
someday provide a break-through for rural communities, but they are not a viable
option now, according to Dennis Witmer, director of the University of Alaska
Fairbanks' Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory.
The cost of manufacturing fuel cells must come down, and a source of easily
transportable fuel must be found, he said.
Witmer's group at the university has been experimenting with fuel cells and
has been recently working with a 5 kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell that has been
in operation since last August at Fairbanks Natural Gas, a local gas
distribution company.
The fuel cell has operated without a flaw for 6,000 hours, an important
accomplishment, Witmer told the conference. Solid oxide fuel cells have the
potential for lasting longer and possibly being less expensive to manufacture on
a large scale than other types of fuel cells, Witmer said.
They are now still too expensive for everyday commercial or home use,
however.
Fuel cells need hydrogen to produce electricity, and the device Witmer is
experimenting with uses natural gas as a source of hydrogen. To be someday
useful in rural Alaska, other sources of fuel will be needed since natural gas
will not be easily available in many communities.
A long-sought goal is a way to power fuel cells with diesel fuel, which is
now widely available in rural Alaska. Early experiments with diesel at UAF's
Arctic Energy Technology Development Laboratory were not promising, Witmer said,
but others are continuing to work on it.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, at
Idaho Falls, is testing a 500 kilowatt fuel cell with diesel as part of a U.S.
Navy research program, according to Bob Carrington, a scientist from the Idaho
laboratory who was at the Talkeetna conference.
If diesel can be made to work in fuel cells for the Navy, there might be
spin-off commercial application, Carrington said.
"The message we have is that fuel cells work, but they are not yet
commercially viable," Witmer told the conference.
Copyright Morris Communications May 09, 2004