Chena Hot Springs

We took a day off and only rode 60 miles from Fairbanks to the springs. We figured we needed some recovery time after the teary send-off of our trusted Prudhoe Bay compatriots.

The place is a bit cheezy but the concept is good. It's all off grid and self sustaining regarding energy. They're working on providing all their own organic vegetables and meats eventually. They currently have some good size greenhouses growing some of their veggies.

The interesting thing is that they're making electricity out of relatively low temp water,which everyone told this guy couldn't be done. The turbine needs to be turned by steam but this geothermal water is only 165 degrees so instead they use a refrigerant as the medium and it boils at a much lower temp. Simple concept but I guess not so simple to make happen practically.

They have a couple of United Technology turbines in this giant shed that looks like plenty of room for expansion. There's no solar as it seems they have more than enough juice. The rooms are all heated with geo water running thru them. They use a lot of recycled parts for building stuff around the property. Old oil drilling pilons for steel columns, the heat dissipaters from the pipeline I think I talked about earlier are used as radiators in some spots and so on.

I thought I had pictures of the rock lake pool but they must be on Mark's camera. The water was nice but probably too hot and not all that sulfury smelling like many hot springs are.