Promoting the biodiesel and vegoil community in Alaska.
Join REAP for the 8th annual Alaska Renewable Energy Fair on Saturday, August 11th from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm on the Anchorage downtown parkstrip between I & E Street. Admission is FREE, and it’s guaranteed to be fun for the whole family! Enjoy the live music, a beer garden, great food, kids activities, informational booths, and renewable energy workshops. Includes a 4pm Biodiesel workshop, SVO converted Volkswagen Westfalia, SVO converted school bus and more veggie goodness!
Yep, it’s time for Alaska’s 2011 Renewable Energy Fair! We’re offering a FREE biodiesel and SVO seminar at noon, and will be there all afternoon with veg-converted vehicles at our booth. Hope to see you there!
Yes, we’ve had a bit of a brain freeze this past winter. But, never fear! Biodiesel and SVO is alive and well in the Arctic!
Fuel prices dropped this past year, and with it the biodiesel and SVO tirekickers dwindled to a mere trickle. A few guys were once again trying to make a fortune brewing and selling biodiesel. One in particular, Denali Biodiesel, got up and running with a few mid-scale plants, but as of this spring they’re relocating out-of-state. Best of luck to them!
We at Arctic Vegwerks had ZERO conversions for 2010. But, with Alaska’s Home Energy Rebate program we kept busy making our humble abode less dependent of fossil fuels, and took advantage of that nice $10k grant the state was offering.
Alaska Waste is plowing ahead with their biodiesel and composting efforts, and we applaud them. We estimate they’re using about half of the grease in Anchorage in their private fleet of trash haulers.
This still leaves a quarter of a million gallons of grease out there. With our remote market, obtaining enough SVO for personal vehicles is still a viable option. We had it pretty cush when Alaska Mill and Feed was the grease processor: no contracts, and cheap grease for sale in bulk. With Alaska Waste’s new 3-year contracts, many of the larger restaurant and institutions are taken, but there are plenty of little restaurants looking for someone to pick up grease for free.
Which leads to another dilemma: GREASE DISPOSAL. Yep, SVO folks with too much grease on their hands are left to the Alaska Biodiesel Yahoogroup or Craigslist to cheaply dispose of oil. Anchorage’s hazardous waste collection center at the landfill and transfer stations will take up to 40lbs of residential waste a day for free (one cubie), but charges $.25/lb for more ($4.00 a cube). Businesses must to pay for all oil disposed. Emerald Alaska is the city’s hazardous waste contractor, and their commercial rates are similar, but they do accept drums of oil. Last time I checked, Alaska Waste was charging $2.50 a cube ($.50 a gallon) for oil disposal during business hours (call ahead), but will only take good clean oil – no sludge.
Bottom line: don’t stockpile more than you need.
Of course, we’ve got some friends heating their shop in Wasilla off SVO, with a modified Turk Burner setup. Yellow Heat from Massachusetts has a neat Babington Ball heater. Anyone else in Alaska doing SVO heat? We’d love to hear from you.
Veg On!
Biofueling Alaska: Case Studies and Design Considerations will be one of the many seminars at this year’s Alaska Forum on the Environment at the Anchorage Dena’ina Convention Center.
We will be in the K’enakatnu Board Room, Feb 10, 2010 from 9:00-11:45am.
Join us for a look at small and medium scale biofuel and biomass projects in Alaska. Basic design and function of biodiesel and fish oil systems will be covered as well as an update on what is happening in wood-based biomass thermal and combined heat and power (CHP) systems.
Presenters: Will Taygan, Arctic Vegwerks and Thomas Deerfield, Dalson Energy
Moderator: Win Westervelt, CH2M HILL
Yep, after a year’s reprieve from our lowest-in-the-nation $0.08 per gallon state motor fuel tax, we’re back to our monthly payments.
Alaskans who burn homebrew fuel in an internal combustion powered vehicle are supposed to submit form 04-530. I sent my $1.60 in today.
Check with the Alaska Department of Revenue for details.
Yesterday’s fifth annual Alaska Renewable Energy Fair had beautiful skies, free local coffee, good food, solid music, nice organic beers and booths from pretty much everyone who’s involved in renewable energy in the state.
We were lucky to be the featured interview on KTUU channel 2 last night!
Veg On!
The 5th annual Alaska Renewable Energy Fair will be held Saturday August 1st from 11am-9pm at the Memorial Block on the Delaney Park Strip, downtown Anchorage.
This FREE Fair features food and craft vendors, business and non-profit exhibitors, live music, and workshops on renewable energy. Keynote speaker at 5pm, Melissa Mitchell sings in the afternoon and the Whipsaws will rock the evening.
We’ll have a number of veg-converted vehicles to show off and will be offering a backyard biodiesel basics demonstration, time TBA.
Check out http://alaskarenewableenergy.org/events/renewable-energy-fair/ for more details.
Veg On!
In celebration of Earth Day the kind folks at Greasy Rider have put their film up on Hulu!
We showed this SVO Road-Trip documentary at the Anchorage Museum of Art last year. Read our review here.
Veg On!
The 2009 Earth Day celebration for the Upper Susitna Valley will be held on Saturday, April 18th, at the Sheldon Community Arts Hanger in downtown Talkeetna from 11:00am – 3:00pm.
The festivities will include presentations, food, coffee, kid crafts, entertainment and informational
booths.
We’ll be there with biodiesel demonstrations, straight veg information and class flyers. Anyone want to come out and help table?
Directions:
Take the George Parks to Talkeetna Spur Road (mile 98). Turn onto Talkeetna Spur and take it all the way into town to the stop sign. Go through the stop sign (stay on Main Street) and take your first left (just after Nagley’s). It’s directly ahead on the left in a renovated airplane hanger
Veg On!
“It’s really dorky and fun,” says Utne Reader librarian Danielle Maestretti about the Alaska biodiesel articles in this issue of biodieselSMARTER. Dorky and fun? Sure, I’ll go with that. Check it out at the Utne Reader Media Blog!
Veg On!
P.S. We’re at the end of the segment.
