Let X Mark the Spot - May 13, Haines Borough Assembly Meeting

I just got off the phone with Steve Haggenson, Executive Director of the Alaska Energy Authority. His enthusiasm for helping communities locate and develop renewable sources of energy is exciting. It is, in fact, “energizing.” Still, AEA is not going to schedule a Town Hall Energy Meeting in Haines. Too bad. I think that Steve’s enthusiasm and “can do” attitude could galvanize our leadership, could galvanize “us.”

Haggenson was formerly the CEO of Golden Valley Electric Association. He knows electric utilities. I mentioned that some folks in Haines were interested in forming an energy coop. Now, this seems like a daunting proposition to me. Not to Mr. Haggenson. In fact, he said, you could do it with 10 people. No municipality required.

When I asked Steve how that might be done, he rattled off a scenario based on dollars and cents. Looking at AP&T’s current rates in Haines, he suggested a rate we could offer to sell power to AP&T that would be profitable for our power coop and still be attractive to AP&T. He explained how, once we had an agreement with AP&T, that agreement would be considered “bankable,” and could be the basis for a loan for the development of the infrastructure. Maybe, if we did the feasibility work, AP&T might even offer to do the development themselves!

And that’s where AEA comes in. The purpose of the Energy Town Hall Meeting is to gather local information on renewable energy sources. The AEA folks will put up maps and locals will draw circles on them: “this is a good wind spot,” “snow never melts there, that’s probably a good geothermal spot,” “…strong 15 knot current there – tidal power maybe.”

AEA is also interested in sources of waste heat. They want to know what temperatures are coming off the water treatment plant. How hot is the heat generated by the solid waste reduction operation at Community Waste Solutions? As he said, they have a building full of experts in Anchorage who want to help communities assess and develop their resources and they are relying on us to tell them what we have. Then they will come.

Well, AEA is still NOT coming to Haines for an Energy Town Hall meeting. (I just can’t seem to let this go, can I?) But they are going to do the next best thing. They are sending us maps. We can put them up and draw our circles - Let X mark the spot. Haines Borough Mayor Fred Shields is going to allow time for me to explain the AEA request for energy source information at the May 13 Borough meeting. I’ll hang the maps. You can draw the circles! Then we will send the information back up north to AEA; in turn they will send down equipment-laden analysts and we will let science go to work. A data-based analysis of our resources will help us know where best to focus our human and financial efforts. That seems very sensible.

By the way, Mr. Haggensen said that he would like to come to Haines. Maybe we can get a meeting together in July. In the meantime, please come May 13, 6:30 PM, and add your local knowledge to the Haines renewable energy resource maps. We will have lots of red pens.