KeV LLC: innovation and invention on Kodiak Island.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Manufacturing

What started out as frustration with the standard technology found in inverters and generators used by Kodiak fishermen has become a multi-faceted project that could change how rural power is delivered and how fishing vessels are powered.

Using a $247,000 grant from the Alaska Emerging Energy Technology Fund, Seraphim McGann and Father Joshua Resnick are building a 215 kilowatt generator using technology that the pair says is significantly more fuel efficient, more reliable, and more powerful pound for pound than traditional generators.

Just don't ask them how--at least not right now.

"How, exactly, were doing that is proprietary information," Resnick says.

The men are applying for two patents and, as the application has not yet been filed, they are reluctant to discuss specific details about their projects. They hope this period of relative silence about the project will yield great results.

"That being stated, we have successfully demonstrated our proof-of-concept generator. We are currently building a 215 kilowatt generator using our technology and once that's done ... we are beginning the process of looking for investment," Resnick says.

Frustration Generated New Ideas

The two men began their project to update generator technology a few years ago while working on Kodiak fishing vessels.

"We both worked at a repair shop in Kodiak which did a lot of work on fishing vessels. One of the projects I had when I was there was to try to repair an inverter," says McGann.

The inverter was from a small-scale hydroelectric power installation.

"I was really dissatisfied with the technology. It seemed there was probably a better way to approach the inverter design," he says. "Struggling with that project definitely planted the seed, and I think we have come up with a project that is very powerful and not readily available."

The men applied for an Emerging Energy Technology Fund grant in 2012, about a year after they started designing a better inverter. Although fishing boats were the genesis of the idea for an updated inverter, Resnick and McGann say the application would work well for rural or remote power installations.

The generator they're building will be housed in an old Bluebird school bus that has been retrofitted to include a mechanical room, similar to the engine room on a fishing boat, where the generator can be demonstrated.

"The generator will actually power the bus and we can move the bus to different sites to do pilot tests," Resnick...