USA, Alaska:

GRC Member Looks Underground for Alaska Energy (The Bellingham Herald)

Pete Stelling, assistant professor of geology at Western Washington
University (Courtesy ALEC SANDERG/The Bellingham Herald

The possible answer to the energy needs of a small town on a small island in Alaska lies just below their feet.

Akutan sits in Alaska’s remote Aleutian chain and is home to Mount Akutan, a 4,275-foot volcano that erupted as recently as 1992. With that fresh volcanic activity, there’s plenty of hot water below ground that could be used to generate electricity for the town’s 100 year-round residents and for Trident Seafood’s production plant, the largest such plant in North America, with up to 1,400 employees during peak season.

For power now, more than 4 million gallons of diesel fuel are shipped to the island every year, at a cost of $14 million. GRC Member and Western Washington University assistant professor of Geology Pete Stelling, is working to make Akutan much less dependent on the fuel by tapping the island’s renewable geothermal energy.

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