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Chena Hot Springs owner pioneers energy technology

by Rhonda McBride
Friday, May 29, 2009

CHENA HOT SPRINGS, Alaska -- The hot springs used to be the big draw for tourists, but now many come to Chena Hot Springs for the energy tours to see what new technology can do. 

In the last few years Bernie Karl, the owner of Chena Hot Springs Resort, has pioneered technology to generate electricity from hot water.

But Chena Hot Springs is about much more than energy. 

Karl uses his resort as a laboratory to grow new ideas.  

His latest brainchild is a portable power generator that can be hooked up to an oil or gas well.

The mobile geothermal power plant is basically a power plant on a flat bed truck.

When it's hooked up to an oil well the hot water byproduct can generate enough power for 280 homes.  

That's a lot of energy in a state like Texas where there are a lot of oil rigs.

That's why the Department of Energy and several private companies have put about $1.4 million  to develop and test the prototype which will be hooked up to an oil well in Florida this fall. 

The technology is not limited to oil wells.

Waste heat or geothermal energy can also be used to create hydrogen fuel which Chena Hot Springs plans to use to run its cars soon.

"Any waste heat stream. Go to anybody that's got an engine running, anybody that's manufacturing something. It's got waste heat," Karl said. "You back it up and turn it into electricity."

It's expensive to produce but if the energy is renewable it could pencil out especially for communities in rural Alaska that pay more than $6 a gallon for fuel.

"Hydrogen is just one more tool in your renewable energy tool box," said Karl. "Yet someday hydrogen will be the fuel of the future, you'll see."

Karl says we need two ingredients to find the fuels of the future.

"We have no vision. We have no passion," Karl told a group of state lawmakers who took Chena's energy tour this week.

"I'm telling you every community in Alaska can be totally sufficient in ten years," Karl said. "And I told them it doesn't take money.  We already spend the money. We spend it on fuel. And we give the money to someone else. Most of the money leaves the state. It doesn't stay in the community."

Karl says we might as well invest in renewable energy to keep the money here.  

One project that may do that is a new geothermal well that will go down 3,000 feet.

Karl hopes to generate enough power to run operate Eielson Air Force Base.

"Do you realize what that can do for an air force base," said Karl. "It'll make sure that air force base gets to be there when they cut other air force bases. They won't be cutting that one."

The energy tours at Chena Hot Springs are free.

Chena will host its annual renewable energy fair in August where the portable power plant will be featured.  

Contact Rhonda McBride at rmcbride@ktuu.com