Today was spent at the Renewable Energy Fair held at Chena Hot Springs Resort located about 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks. There was quite a turnout with cars parked all along the last mile or so of the road. They were showing off the low temperature geothermal power generator as well as a portable version for demonstrating up in Prudhoe. I guess the water coming up when drilling for oil has enough heat to generate a significant amount of power. The entire resort is running off of the power generated on site using low temperature hot water. The payoff for the system is expected to be 5 years.
It was a beautiful day out at the resort though it began pretty chilly. Due to all of the road construction, I'm glad that I didn't ride out there. The bus made for a fairly relaxing trip (except for a couple of really whiny women who seemed to be complaining about everything on the ride out. The speakers were pretty good with a mix of researchers from the University and engineers from commercial companies. There was a really interesting presentation about an experimental home built this summer in Anatuvik Pass. One of the goals is that the entire structure including all finish material needed to fit into a DC-6. I;m looking forward to the report next year as to how it survived the winter. I think that I will plan on attending the event next year.
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