Alternative Energy – Scribbling For Fun

“If you dare nothing, when the day is over, nothing is all you have gained’
-Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book

The last ten months of my life have been spent in a frenzy of “hurry up and wait,” as we like to phrase it in the military. Life has been a rollercoaster from the moment the announcement was made at the end of August 2019, that my business unit had been sold, until the last week of June when I shut down my email and handed in my laptop and badge.

Many people were disturbed by my decision to package out. I was too young—committing career suicide. Shouldn’t I want to continue to work, develop my career? Some were jealous, chained to the need for a steady paycheck for personal or family reasons.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but as time went by and the date got closer. Any doubt in my mind that it was the right one disappeared.

Am I quitting working forever?

Not necessarily. I’m taking a pause to re-evaluate what’s important in life, and how much I really need to work, while Ray and I turn 31 acres of Alaska wilderness into an artists’ retreat and our future summer retirement getaway.

Alternative Energy

I’m definitely going to be putting my technical skills to the test, working on our new solar kit and performing a battery study this summer. I also plan on doing a wind study to eventually install wind turbines to complement our system

Writing

Even with all of the physical work we have going on, being disconnected from the constant chatter allows me to focus on my story and blog writing in a way that I just can’t in town.

collage of Ray Shepard's welded sculpture in Chicken, Lily of the Valley, DM Shepard — Collage of the Lilly of the Valley sculpture in Chicken. Many more to come as we turn 31 acres of Alaska Wilderness into an off-grid artists’ retreat.

Stepping off the Merry-Go-Round

Take care everyone. I’ll have some auto-posts on social media over the next few weeks, and when we come back into range for supplies, I’ll post updates on where we are at with our off-grid adventures. Hopefully someday some of you can come join us.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.’—
T.S. Eliot

Thanks for reading. Follow my blog or sign up for my newsletter if you would like to find out more. My first self-published novel, The Dark Land, is Available on Amazon.

The legend of Alaska’s Headless Ravine is steeped in blood. It’s hunger for human flesh never sleeps, even in the deepest cold of winter. Courage, skill and love will be tested to the limits on the isolated boundaries of The Dark Land.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

ENERGY STORAGE

Reliable, cost effective and environmentally sustainable energy storage is a key to making alternative energy solutions competitive against other sources for the long term. Solar, wind, hydro, and tidal energy are abundant at times and in certain regions. Without the means to store this energy for when times are lean and make it accessible to all, it is easy to fall back onto fossil fuels.

ALASKA CHALLENGES IN REMOTE LOCATIONS

Which brings me to my upcoming summer project with our new solar kit. For those of you who follow my posts regularly, our cabin is in a remote region of Alaska, subject to extreme temperatures. The record low for Chicken is -76. The highs can easily hit 80-90 in the summer months, where our ridge easily gets 21+ hours of sunlight a day at its peak.

View of the sunset from our cabin. Time is approximately midnight at the summer solstice. The sun will dip behind the mountains for about 3 hours, never quite getting dark..

BATTERIES AND PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SOLAR ENERGY

Battery longevity and efficiency is of extreme importance. Batteries are expensive parts of a photovoltaic system. They are, at their heart, simple devices. By definition, a battery is two dissimilar metals immersed in an electrolytic (typically acid) solution. This creates a chemical reaction. They are also (depending on their construction), highly corrosive and toxic waste in landfills. It is important that as we develop alternative energy storage solutions, we maximize storage efficiency to minimize waste and reduce cost. The extremes in temperatures that I mentioned above can degrade a battery’s life, requiring it to be replaced more frequently, thus adding more waste to our landfills and requiring more mining of rare earth minerals.

Me out in Chicken taking a break with Jane Friedman’s the Business of Being a Writer

I will be conducting a study of our system, keeping track of load, temperatures, charge and charge times, acid levels and specific gravity. I will track this information as a means to help manufacturers and researchers refine their processes to create energy storage solutions that can better withstand extreme environments and improve alternative energy accessibility for all.

This will be the first of many projects we hope to bring to life out in the 31 remote acres in the 40-Mile District of Alaska. Thanks for reading. In my next blog, I will discuss a little more in-depth on the details of our system design and capacity.

Summer of 2020 IS GOING TO BE AN ADVENTURE!

HOLD MY BEER!

Me and my father-in-law Shep, having a beer at the bar in Chicken, AK

Thanks for reading. I plan on posting many of our adventures this summer and beyond as I move into my next phase of my life and career. In the meantime, if you are looking for a fictional Alaska adventure, The Dark Land is available on Amazon

The legend of Alaska’s Headless Ravine is steeped in blood. Its hunger for human flesh never sleeps, even in the deepest cold of winter. Courage, skill and love will be stretched to the limits on the isolated boundaries of The Dark Land.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Category: Alternative Energy

Taking the Leap

Alternative Energy in Chicken, AK Part 1