Based in Fairbanks, ABS Alaskan, Inc. and its Anchorage subsidiary, Alaska Battery Mfg., supply energy solutions into the Alaskan market. In addition to its two facilities in Alaska, the company maintains a distribution center in Renton Washington to provide solutions to its customers outside of Alaska. The company provides solar, wind and hydro systems in addition to diesel and gasoline powered generators for backup power.

Jim Norman, the company’s president, has been looking for in-stream hydrokinetic turbines for the Alaskan market for several years with the intent of reducing energy costs for the communities located along the larger rivers within the state. Jim contacted New Energy in December of 2007 and the two companies moved to establish a relationship early in 2008.

The first system supplied by ABS was a 5 kW EnCurrent Power Generation Systems which was sold to the Yukon River Intertribal Watershed Council (YRITWC). ABS worked with YRITWC to install the system in Ruby Alaska during the summer of 2008 and the system was connected to the Ruby micro-grid in month of August. The installation in Ruby represented the first hydrokinetic system installed in Alaska and was also the first river deployed hydrokinetic system in the US. And a case study of the project is available here.

ABS Alaskan and New Energy were recently awarded a contract to supply and install a 25 kW EnCurrent Power Generation System for Alaska Power and Telephone (AP&T) in Eagle Alaska. AP&T has done extensive analysis at the site in Eagle and it is expected that the system will be installed in the spring of 2009. Additional information on the Eagle project is available at
www.aptalaska.com/index.php?action=switchPage&pageID=95.