Sustainable North

From The Associated Press, Friday, September 17, 2010: A University of Alaska group will receive $3 million to study options to optimize wind-diesel hybrid energy systems in rural Alaska. The Alaska Center for Energy and Power, based at UA Fairbanks, was awarded the grant by the federal Department of Energy. The university says Alaska already [...]

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From The Tundra Drums, Wednesday, September 15, 2010: WindPower Innovations Inc., a wind power infrastructure and smart grid solutions company (PINK SHEETS:WPNV), announced talks with Alaska Villages Electric Co-op (AVEC), a non-profit electric utility, owned by the people served in 53 villages throughout interior and western Alaska, and is the largest service area of any [...]

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From Alaska Dispatch, Tuesday, September 7, 2010: A state program designed to ensure that rural Alaska communities have an adequate supply of home-heating fuel is headed into its second successful year, the state reported in a press release. The Fuel Watch program is an initiative of Gov. Sean Parnell that was implemented by the Department [...]

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From The Anchorage Daily News, Sunday, August 15, 2010: As an Alaska Native veteran, I want to see our country expand our clean energy sources. It will help our planet and our state, it will help Alaska’s Native peoples and it will help our national defense. I am 69 years old. In my lifetime I [...]

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From The Arctic Sounder, Wednesday, August 25, 2010: The success of an innovative new home in Anaktuvuk Pass – which uses a wind power, solar panels and design features of traditional Nunamiut sod housing – is changing the way houses will be designed and built on the North Slope. “This is a huge leap forward [...]

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From The Tundra Drums, Wednesday, July 7, 2010: The “river loggers” who float driftwood down the Yukon River for heating have a new use for their big bundles: a seafood company that hopes to show housing agencies it can build low-cost homes with local materials. The Yukon Delta Fisheries Development Association buys the logs and [...]

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From The New York Times, Friday, June 25, 2010: A long-running joke with my nieces, Allison and Lindsay, is that a mistake involving caribou is a “caribou-bou.”  Our caribou-bou is now clear.  We missed the massive migrations of the Western caribou herd in Alaska by two days. We’ve seen recent tracks everywhere, as well as [...]

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From Peninsula Clarion, Saturday, May 1, 2010: Kate Veh believes Kenai Peninsula residents can learn something about being a sustainable community from Ionia, the therapeutic eco-village located in Kasilof. Veh, a founder of local environmental group Kenai Resilience, helped organize a tour of the community April 24. “They are the most sustainable community on the [...]

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From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Saturday, May 1, 2010: Fort Yukon could turn to wood-fired power to ease its reliance on diesel fuel. Tanana could install wind turbines and start using half as much fuel within a few years. The Alaska Energy Authority published those scenarios and about 200 more, including cost estimates, this week. [...]

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From The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Tuesday, April 27, 2010: Willie Hensley said this morning that Alaska, particularly its energy-starved rural communities, should think about bracing for tough times. Oil development and federal financial aid have left Alaska with great per capita wealth. They’ve declined in recent years, and Hensley, an icon in modern Alaska Native [...]

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