Budding Energy: Alaska looks to biomass as alternative electricity source.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: NATURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

In a state rife with natural resources, it makes sense to try to find ways to use these resources to produce energy. And while Alaska always has been and likely will be heavily reliant on fossil fuels, biomass as an alternative resource is beginning to attract interest.

"Biomass generally refers to plant and animal matter or municipal waste used for energy, though most of the biomass projects in Alaska are thermal wood heat projects," says Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) Executive Director Curtis Thayer, adding that most of the agency's biomass work is based around these types of projects.

According to AEA records, community biomass projects date back to 1995, when they applied for funding opportunities through the US Department of Energy. The Alaska Legislature created the Renewable Energy Fund in 2008, which supports biomass projects statewide.

While some projects have been met with success--such as the large-scale biodiesel refinery opened by Alaska Waste in 2010 that uses local restaurant vegetable oil waste to operate its fleet of sixty vehicles using 10 percent biodiesel--other projects have not fared as well. Despite the fact that Haines Borough used energy produced from biomass to heat its senior center successfully for years, a larger project designed to build a biomass boiler plant near the school and a second biomass system at the wastewater treatment plant did not come to fruition.

"That project did not proceed," says Edward Coffland, Haines Borough's director of public facilities. "There was never enough public support, the economics were marginal, and a ready, reliable supply of biomass was not available, so the grant money was returned."

According to AEA, there are currently more than 170 prefeasibility biomass systems throughout the state and in excess of 50 operating systems. A wealth of different groups--from the State of Alaska and the US Forest Service (USFS) to the Denali Commission and local governments--are helping fund and support these systems from feasibility to construction through training and long-term operation.

"The Alaska Wood Energy Development Task Group has nearly twenty participants that represent agencies from government entities [including AEA1 to private, nonprofit, and tribal groups all working together to promote biomass in Alaska," says Thayer. He also explains that Alaskans' interest in biomass is largely dependent on the price of fossil fuels and a community's ability to have fuel delivered regularly.

"When the price of diesel is low, biomass projects often do not pencil out economically," he adds. "Biomass utilization will likely depend...