Kirk Garoutte, owner: Susitna Energy Systems.

• Author: Gallion, Mari
• Position: View from the Top

Kirk Garoutte first set foot on Alaska soil while still in high school in the summer of 1969. For a military brat who'd lived all over the world-and who had recently been digging ditches at Fort Walton Beach in Florida for $1 an hour-the $4 hourly wage he could make in Alaska grinding the bottoms of tugboats during the summer break made him think he had found heaven. After a few more years of snowbirding between Florida and Alaska, Garoutte settled in Alaska permanently in 1974.

After various career seasons that included working on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, working in Saudi Arabia and Thailand for Morrison Knudsen, and spending many years as a crane operator, Garoutte found a new and fulfilling career while building his own off-the-grid home.

SERENDIPITOUS START-UP: I'd bought some remote property at Flat Horn Lake, and I'd read about inverters and battery banks, and didn't know anything about them. At that time, I went all over town--nobody here could help me. So I started calling California, and found a guy who explained battery bank inverter operation to me. I bought an inverter--I bought batteries--I hooked it up at my place--lots of hard knocks--figured out what did and didn't work, educated myself, and then everybody wanted me to do one for them.

HAPPENSTANCE EXPANSION: Next I needed a wind generator. The company that I called said, "If you order three, we'll make you a dealer." So I found two people to buy the other two, we all got a good deal, and that's how it all started. ! was doing that part-time and being a crane operator fulltime, but in the crane operator field you typically work seven days a week 12 hours a day all summer, and then you wait all winter...