bernie karl's vision for alaska

Can Alaska become energy independent?
That was the title of a talk tonight put on by the university's energy research center. It was supposed to be a panel discussion, but no one wanted to debate Bernie Karl, so it became a talk. Local author Niel Davis started with a brief history of energy use in Alaska -- he literally wrote the book on it -- and then it was on to Karl, whose "talk" was actually an hour-long, half-shouted rant that included a fair amount of cursing (about the foolishness of our addiction to oil, among other things) in the library auditorium.
Karl owns the Chena Hot Springs Resort off the grid about 60 miles from Fairbanks, which made some waves (and the Today Show) recently for its use of ground-breaking geothermal energy technology. Disneyland will be using similar technology soon, and Karl is trying to interest oil companies in it to make power from hot water raised during oil production. That project led to a brief affair with hydrogen electrolyzed with excess green power (not sure where that project's going) and some serious dabbling in year-round, sub-arctic greenhouse production, which enabled Karl's "better than sex" tomato soup. Next year Karl hopes to bring in a pair of small, electric vans made by disabled veterans in Minnesota.
One project that hasn't panned out is the petroleum-free village of 200 homes fueled by hot water (I think) and willows. But, as Karl says, you have to be OK with rejection if you're going to get serious about alternative energy. Or, better yet, turn that rejection into something positive.
The idea is something of a mantra to Karl -- take what others see as waste and make something good from it. Karl seems truly surprised -- and ashamed for us as humans -- that power plants waste perfectly good heat right up their smokestacks, along with huge amounts of water and carbon dioxide. One of Karl's other businesses is a giant recycling center near North Pole that stockpiles and sells scrap metal. And his latest energy scheme is firmly based in the idea of making use of waste. The plan is to build a "smokestack-free" power plant based on the Chena technology but fueled by waste paper, cardboard, and willow rather than hot water. The plant will be located at his recycling plant and rely on 600 acres of willow grown on a three-year rotation. Waste heat and water will fuel a 1-acre greenhouse producing 3,300 heads of lettuce a day. CO2 will feed single-cell algae and, in times of excess, the willow farm. (Karl doesn't have a clue how extra CO2 will affect plant growth, but would rather test it on 600 acres than on a few trees in a lab.)
Somewhere in the middle of explaining his vision of sustainability and trying to prove his sanity, Karl took out his rubber-band wallet and flipped through a wad of bills, saying, "I turn it all to green." ("It all" in this case being household waste, heat, water, pollution, and so on.)
Karl is a journalist's dream. He's remarkably entertaining and quotable, to the point that anyone speaking after him seems unimaginative and overly serious. But he's also a nightmare in the sense that you never know if he's for real. I've seen the tomatoes and soaked in the hot springs, so I know they're real. But Romanian willow farming? NASA sampling the algae at Chena? Maybe it's irrelevant, but he's also un-PC in a way that can make you cringe and not just laugh.
When Karl finished his rant, he held a friend's young baby in one arm and explained how the economics of green-power projects look better when you consider the value of not trashing the earth. "It's their future," he said. "What value do you put on that?" The baby stared at the side of Karl's head, then started to whine.
I'm not sure Karl ever directly answered the question at hand -- whether Alaskans can really heat their homes, power their tools, and fuel their cars with sun, water, and algae -- but the implication was yes. According to Karl, the only things missing are vision and some imagination.
"Sustainability is there -- if you want it," he said.