Tag: Energy

Coeur Alaska Inc. Donates $40,000 to UAS Scholarship Fund

Coeur Award - Avery Stewart

Juneau, Alaska – Coeur Alaska Inc. has donated $40,000 to the UAS Coeur Alaska-Kensington Gold Mine Environmental Science Award this academic year. This brings a total donation of $126,500 to the University of Alaska Southeast since 2010 with $100,000 going to awards for students studying environmental science.

“Coeur Alaska – Kensington Mine values our partnership with the University of Alaska Southeast and our shared desire to train the next generation of Alaskans in the field of Environmental Science,” says Wayne Zigarlick, VP and General Manager. “We are pleased to make this contribution to the scholarship endowment fund to help students who share our dedication toward preserving and protecting the environment.”

Avery Stewart is just one of these students. A Coeur Alaska – Kensington Gold Mine Environmental Science Award recipient and a senior at UAS, Stewart is set to graduate this May with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science. He has made the Dean’s Honor List and enrolled in the UAS honors program and researched hydrology while participating in the UAS International Student Exchange program in Hungary in 2015. He plans to continue his education researching biotechnology and renewable energy and use his skills to help Alaska’s economy.

“Our state has relied heavily on our natural gas reserves, for which profits have dwindled over the last decade, but it has incredible potential for wind and hydro power that has been largely untouched.” Stewart says. “I think in the future we will have no choice but to invest in alternative energy. I’m actually really hopeful for the country and for the state.”

For more information about the University of Alaska Southeast, visit www.uas.alaska.edu or call 907-796-6100.

Source: UAS Press Release – March 21, 2017 (Photo Credit: Seanna O’Sullivan)

Want to be a millwright? Training will soon be available, in Anchorage.

What’s a millwright? It’s a seldom-discussed but absolutely crucial (and highly paid) profession that demands a meticulous eye, versatility, and expertise with everything from turbines and pumps to lasers and other highly technical equipment.

The word “millwright” conjures the thought of someone from an antique age — a leather-aproned, mustached man in a sepia photograph, sweaty, amid the dusty belts, gears and wheels of a machine shop.

The reality, now, in Alaska, is that a millwright is a person with a sophisticated range of skills who can find work in just about any of the state’s industrial sectors — including mining, oil and gas, seafood processing, power and energy, water and wastewater. Freshly minted millwrights can command a starting salary between $70,000-$120,000.

Why would companies pay that kind of coin to a person who fixes, maintains and moves industrial machinery?

They pay because millwrights know, for example, that gearboxes and turbines and hydraulic pumping and piping must be laid on a center line, with everything square and plumb. If they’re not, anything can happen: a small pump aligned improperly might draw more power so it doesn’t operate as efficiently and wastes money.

Read the full article here.

Source: Want to be a millwright? Training will soon be available, in Anchorage – Green & Gold News

A Village in a Lab: UAF Works to Advance Energy Industry


The first thing you notice upon entering the 5,000-square-foot Energy Technology Facility located on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus is the bright blue UAF-colored floor and the orderliness of everything inside. All four bays of the world-class energy lab are dedicated to the design and development of practical, cost-effective and innovative energy solutions for Alaska.

The efficiency and effectiveness of the space is a testament to the hours of hard work and years of field experience on the part of the laboratory manager, David Light, and a robust team of researchers working for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power.

Read the full article here.

Source: UAF News and Information

Workforce Wednesday: Renewable energy careers | KTVA Anchorage CBS 11

The renewable energy industry is a growing with a wide range of professionals — like lawyers, engineers and financiers — bringing projects to life. That means there are plenty of jobs to fill.

Suzanne Gibson, senior director at CIRI Energy Development, joined Daybreak to talk about careers in the renewable energy industry where average pay can fall between $40,000 and $100,000 per year.

Gibson said she always knew she wanted to get into business, but what drove her toward energy was the lack of women in the field. She said there is opportunity for anyone who wants to learn.

“When I got into wind [energy] we didn’t really — I didn’t — know that much about it, but I did come with an attitude about how to learn,” Gibson said. “So I’m excited to do it and we’re excited to expand the project — Fire Island phase two — next year, which will bring a lot of jobs to Anchorage.”

Companies Hiring:

  • Emergya Wind Technologies
  • Jacobs Engineering Group
  • UniSea Inc.

Energy-Related Training:

  • AVTEC: Wind Turbine Mechanic
  • UAF Bristol Bay: Sustainable Energy Occupational Endorsement
  • Mat-Su College: Energy Construction program

Mat-Su College Employer Expo

  • APICC Booth
  • Wednesday, March 16
  • 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.

For more information, click here.

Source: Workforce Wednesday: Renewable energy careers | KTVA Anchorage CBS 11

Alaska’s Microgrids Offer a Prototype for Powering the World

Alaska’s most remote villages may have a thing or two to teach the rest of the United States and the world about keeping the lights on.

State agencies, private companies and the federal government are increasingly looking to the remote electrical “microgrids” that power rural Alaska in places where roads and long-distance electric transmission lines don’t go.

Energy experts and advocates in the state are hoping that what they’ve learned about producing power in a difficult climate could be useful — and profitable — to share, helping get the world’s remote islands and parts of sub-Saharan Africa powered. But not just remote places: Violent storms, terrorist attacks and an increasing awareness of the vulnerability of the electrical grid are causing many to doubt the wisdom of relying solely on a utility-centric model for power distribution. 

Read the full article here.

Source: Alaska Dispatch News