Alaska geothermal power: Alaska energy authority overview of projects.

• Author: Colby, Nicole A. Bonham
• Position: ENERGY

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Positioned along the highly active Ring of Fire that arcs across the Pacific Rim, Alaska not surprisingly offers a landscape dotted with natural geothermal features--active and dormant volcanoes, regional hot springs, and the like. For those looking to harness such natural energy to create power and end-use heat, the 49th state is one of opportunity.

The state's geothermal resources are focused in three primary areas: first, the Ring of Fire encircling the Pacific and that includes the Aleutian chain, Alaska Peninsula and Wrangell range; second, a sweep of hot springs stretching from the Seward Peninsula to Canada; and Southeast Alaska's collection of hot springs scattered throughout the island region.

The attraction to natural heat sources-for warmth and therapeutic reasons-is a theme present throughout the state's colorful history, fueling early tourism development last century at places as remote and far-flung as southern Southeast Alaska's historic and now-closed Bell Island hot springs resort along Behm Canal; the much-visited wooden soaking tubs of the Chief Shakes hot springs along the Stikine River northeast of Wrangell that are now managed by the U.S. Forest Service; and the pre-World War II Bailey Bay hot springs resort north Ketchikan on the Cleveland Peninsula.

Nowadays, aside from the well-known visitor hot-spot Chena Hot Springs Resort--which also captures its own natural resource to provide power via the state's first and only geothermal power-producing plant--much of the current interest in Alaska's natural geothermal energy is for commercial and industrial reasons: power generation, geothermal heat pump efforts, and direct-use intent (capturing heated fluids to directly use the heat to warm a space or greenhouse). That said, the lure of warm water sources amidst the cool landscape of Alaska continues today to draw visitors, modern day explorers, and developers, alike.

Alan Baldivieso, program manager of the Alaska Energy Authority's Geothermal, Hydrokinetic and Emerging Energy Technologies effort, speaks to the scope of the state's geothermal zones and current projects afoot.

"Alaska's got a tremendous amount of geothermal potential," affirms Baldivieso. "It's also a very big state and the resources are very spread out. The upshot is that there is a tremendous amount of exploration that needs to occur."

Of the three categories of geothermal projects--power production, heat pumps and direct use--"the...