Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Four years ago, Harvey Bowers launched a crusade to get off the grid after a line-clearing crew dropped a tree on a pen housing his pet reindeer. So far, the Wasilla area bed and breakfast owner is finding it easier than he thought.

He's not energy independent by a long shot. But he's cut his home power bills nearly in half by switching to energy-efficient light bulbs and installing his own solar power system.

"I haven't gotten rid of anything (appliances). I haven't turned off anything," he said. "The more I'm around it ... the more I'm convinced it's possible to go zero energy."

Bowers and his wife, Sandy, are among a wave of people across Alaska hooking up to renewable energy systems. Those systems range from wind turbines in places like Toksook Bay on the western coast of Alaska to a home near Palmer powered by a solar panel mounted in a tree.

No one tracks the use of alternative energy in the state. But homes with backyard wind turbines, solar panels or hydropower easily number in the hundreds, if not more, say those who design, install and sell components for such systems.

George Menard started his company, Invertech Alaska, in Trapper Creek in 1985 to sell renewable energy systems. Since then, he's installed more than 200 wind and solar systems around Anchorage, the Mat-Su and remote sites like a fly-in lodge on Lake Minchumina near Denali National Park.

He said that with rising gas prices, he's noticed an increase in interest in alternative systems. Kirk Garoutte and Jim Norman also say sales have steadily increased at their respective companies, Susitna Energy Systems and ABS Alaskan, which supply components for renewable energy systems.

In the Valley, dozens of people run their homes on sun, wind or water power. Many are in far-flung areas where hooking up to power lines is prohibitively expensive. At Lake Louise near Glennallen, for example, where the nearest power lines are miles away, sun-tracking solar panels are nearly as common in yards as swing sets.

But alternative energy systems can also be found in places like Lazy Mountain and along Buffalo Mine Road just north of Palmer.

Pete Praetorius, a Matanuska-Susitna College professor who lives on Murphy Road near the end of Buffalo Mine Road, said about a dozen of his neighbors have solar systems, including one with a panel mounted in a birch tree.

Praetorius' own setup includes four 2-foot-by-8-foot solar panels and a small wind turbine hooked to a bank of batteries. The system provides nearly all the power he and his wife need, and is far cheaper than hooking up to the grid, he said.

Their total power cost last year was $150 -- the cost of gas for their backup generator, he said.

The system itself, including the panels and wiring, cost less than $10,000, he said. That compares to more than $40,000 to hook up to the nearest power pole, about a mile away, he said.

Praetorius said he could have saved money by just running the generator to charge the batteries, and not buying solar panels. But he likes powering his home from a renewable, non-polluting source.

"You can't always just look at economics," he said.

THE FINAL STRAW

Bowers also likes the green angle. But he and his wife, an accountant, are pragmatists. Putting in the solar system at their home off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway near Seward-Meridian Parkway set them back about $24,000, and they expect the system to eventually pay for itself. They've made some inroads.

Just for installing it, the couple earned a $2,000 deduction on their federal taxes. They've also saved more than $1,000 on their power bill. More significantly, they've eliminated a problem they had with brownouts, or blips in the power supply, that they said fried more than $10,000 worth of phone and computer equipment at the Agate Inn bed and breakfast the couple run on their property.

When Bowers talks about the catalyst behind his push to become energy independent, it's hard not to laugh.

Long irritated by the brownouts, the couple faced their final straw in September 2004 when a line clearing crew dropped a tree on their reindeer pen, and the power company -- Matanuska Electric Association -- refused to pay for repairs. The company later changed its mind. But by then, Bowers was on the warpath.

By 2005, he had begun replacing all the light bulbs in his house and in the buildings the couple uses for their bed and breakfast. He then started researching a solar power system, eventually picking one that could support the couple for up to three days if the power went out. For its size, the system is fairly unobtrusive.

The biggest component is a 6-foot-by-12-foot solar panel that swivels to track the sun during the day and in high winds automatically parks itself flat as a precautionary measure.

Bowers mounted it on a 12-foot-tall pole in the middle of a swampy meadow that's not visible from the house. From the panel, an electric line is carried on poles over the water, then dives underground for the run to the Bowerses' garage, where it neatly ties into an inverter and a bank of a dozen batteries -- the size of car batteries -- tucked along the back wall.

With the system, the couple are able to power their garage and an 800-square-foot living room space full of electronics including two computers, a television, a DVD player, a treadmill, several lights and three printers.

The nice thing, said Sandy Bowers, is not having to change anything. The wiring in the house is all the same, and as far as appliances go, the system can power everything from a hair dryer to the 30-year-old freezer in the garage. Harvey Bowers has even run an arc welder off it.

"We haven't changed our lifestyle any -- not in the least," she said. "We leave the computer on all day."

Right now, Harvey Bowers said, the system produces more power than he can use, with the batteries sometimes fully charged before day is half over.

But he has plans for tapping that. He's already bought 18 more batteries and a wind turbine. He's also working on reducing his heating costs with a roof-mounted solar thermal water heater, which, like it sounds, uses the sun's rays to heat water.

"I'm still at the play state now," he said grinning. "This is just kind of like recreation."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

A number of suppliers, designers and installers of renewable energy systems are in Alaska. They include:

• Invertech Alaska and Mat-Su Energy in the Valley.

• ABS Alaskan, Susitna Energy Systems and YourCleanEnergy in Fairbanks and Anchorage.

• Menard also recommended Home Power magazine, which is aimed primarily at small-scale do-it yourself types.

• Also, on Saturday in Anchorage, the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (www.alaskarenewableenergy.org) holds its fourth annual Renewable Energy Fair, which features workshops and demonstrations on biodiesels and electric cars as well as wind, solar and geothermal power.

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