United States Secretary of Energy Pays a Visit to ACEP

US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz, and US Senator Lisa Murkowski paid a visit to ACEP’s Energy Technology Facility at UAF’s campus on August 17. They were in town for the Chena Hot Springs Renewable Energy Fair.  Other visitors included Gene Therriault of AEA, Clay Koplin of Cordova Electric Cooperative, and Lt. Colonel Crowley, Major Toole, and Major Lovett of the US Alaskan Command also attended the tour.

In addition to touring the facility, members of ACEP discussed with Secretary Moniz the possibility of partnering with the State of Alaska to design and fund a special round of Alaska’s Emerging Energy Technology Fund (EETF), centered on testing technologies outlined in the DOE’s recently released Strategic Plan for 2014-18.  It is hoped that such a round of funding would build on an initiative known as Remote Community Renewable Energy (RCRE) that is currently being led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to establish a design framework to guide future development of high contribution renewables on microgrids.

Photo: US Secretary of Energy, Dr. Ernest Moniz; US Senator Lisa Murkowski; Deputy Director of AEA, Gene Therriault; Lt. Colonel Crowley, Major Toole, and Major Lovett of the USAF; CEO of Cordova Electric Cooperative, Clay Koplin; and members of ACEP pose for a photo in ACEP’s ETF on August 17, 2014.

Photo courtesy of Althea St. Martin, Special Assistant to Senator Lisa Murkowski.