Chena Power's own Jesse Warwick and Michael Gomes will be presenting on the Chena Power clean biomass power plant project.  Project completion is scheduled for 2011.  More details will be provided during the lecture that will be held on Tuesday, August 31 at the Blue Loon from 6 - 7:30 pm.  Follow this link for more information.

 

Chena Power recently attended the 3rd International Biomass Conference & Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The speakers were from all over the world and experts in their respective fields.  If you would like to learn more about the conference please follow this link.

Bernie was born the sixth of sixteen children and
grew up on a farm in Peoria, Illinois. Bernie’s
father was a world-class photographer for
Caterpillar, the company that manufactures
heavy construction and mining equipment and
has its home base in Peoria. Bernie worked at
Caterpillar until, at age 20, itchy feet and
a dream of making it big had him venturing
north to the Last Frontier, moving to Alaska
during the pipeline boom of the 1970s. While
Bernie was employed on the trans-Alaska
pipeline, he met his wife Connie.

The two were active in gold mining in the Central District until the early 1980s.
Bernie established K&K Recycling, the largest recycling facility in Alaska, in 1984.
Bernie and Connie own Kodiak Narrow Cape Lodge, as well as Chena Hot Springs
Resort. Within the first week of owning the resort, Bernie drilled the property’s first
geothermal well.

In January 2004, the Aurora Ice Hotel was built by Chena Hot Springs Resort with
world champion ice carver Steve Brice. It was intended to be the first year-round ice
structure in the world. Unfortunately, it melted in the summer of 2004. Bernie was
featured in Forbes magazine with the distinction of having the “Dumbest Business
Idea of the Year.” During the interview Bernie is quoted as saying, “I took a frozen
asset and turned it into a liquid asset.” Undaunted by the melt, the Aurora Ice Hotel
was rebuilt with new technology in the fall of 2004 and remains standing today.

More recently Bernie has focused his attention on making Chena Hot Springs a
sustainable community. To accomplish this they have established three greenhouses,
all of which are heated using geothermal energy. This allows them to grow fresh
produce for their resort’s restaurant even in the cold winter months. They have also
constructed and installed the first geothermal power plant in Alaska. This geothermal
power plant provides all of the resort’s electricity and operates on the lowest
water temperature of all the geothermal power plants in the world, 160°F.

Given Bernie’s history in recycling and as a leader in geothermal technology research,
he could very well be considered Alaska’s green energy pioneer.

Congratulations to Bernie for being awarded the 34th Annual Business Leader of the Year by the University of Alaska.

A portion of the power needed for the Peppermill hotel and casino in Reno, NV came from Chena Power's revolutionary mobile geothermal power plant.  It was during the 2009 Geothermal Resource Council annual meeting.  Journalists from all over lined up to take a tour of the unit, including CNN.

CNN ARTICLE:  'Imagineer' touts geothermal energy invention