ACEP Intern and Visiting Graduate Student Assist at Pilgrim Hot Springs

Visiting Graduate Student, Dan Sambor, and ACEP Intern, Mariia Iakovleva, recently visited Pilgrim Hot Springs (PHS) on a 5-day trip to investigate the food-energy nexus potential and volunteer with building a greenhouse at the site.

 Sambor is a graduate student from Stanford University and awardee of ACEP’s 2016 Microgrid Technology Competition for his venture DONuT Energy. Iakovleva is an ACEP intern this summer while finishing her Masters in Northern Governance and Development at the University of Saskatchewan.

 Sambor and Iakovleva met with Rob Bensin, of Bering Straits Development Company (BSDC), in Nome and made the 65 mile drive north to PHS in the interior of the Seward Peninsula.

 BSDC is the managing partner of PHS, which is owned by a consortium of native corporations under Unaatuq, Inc. The site has had agricultural and geothermal development since the early 1900’s and BSDC has recently developed a commercial farm with hopes of integrating geothermal into growing operations.

 Sambor and Iakovleva helped harvest produce to bring back to Nome and build a greenhouse which will extend a growing season already lengthened due to warm soils at the site. Both students hope to collaborate with BSDC and PHS as part of their proposed PhD work at their respective universities to continue the work in the energy-food nexus studies begun by ACEP.

Photo credit: Robert Bensin/BSNC.