Alaska gas powers the future

Things are changing fast in the energy world and with a little luck Alaska could see new life in its economy.

Our best hope might be that this state’s vast gas reserves could become a major factor in the world’s energy picture. I’m no expert and can’t claim I know how it will pan out, but the rapidly increasing expansion of online communications seems likely to put a lot of that gas to beneficial use.

And the fast-changing world of telecommunications suggest that it might be possible to convert that gas to energy without really burning it — at least in the conventional sense of the word. The experts have now figured out ways to convert gas to energy with very little impact on the environment. That energy is already becoming a major factor in the business world and promises to become an even larger one as time goes by.

As that develops, one of the more interesting parts of the question will be whether the gas needs to be compressed and shipped via tanker. Or could it be converted to energy in Alaska and that energy transmitted via electronic systems?

If the gas could be actually converted to energy here, that energy could conceivably be transmitted through the Arctic to Europe where it is badly needed. And it might just be transmitted via copper wires made with Alaska copper, of which we have a substantial supply.

Presumably such a development would require major expansion of the region’s industrial base. And that would involve substantial investments here, creating new jobs and opportunities of many kinds.

My optimism may be based substantially on bad guesses, but somehow I don’t think so. I do know that Alaska’s proven gas reserves are huge, something like 9.4 trillion cubic feet of recoverable hydrocarbons. And the actual total — including volumes that have not yet been proven — could be substantially more than that.

The world is trying to turn away from fossil fuels altogether and, considering the potential of solar and hydroelectric energy, may be able to do that in the long run. Our scientists know how to harness energy from the sun, the wind and the ocean. And those sources will almost certainly be heavily utilized as time goes on.

But in the interim there appears to be a significant opportunity for Alaska to use its gas to generate electricity without burning it. Don’t ask me how they do that but apparently they can and the volume of pollution byproducts is minimal.

The need for electricity in today’s world is enormous and growing by the day. Alaska still has substantial oil reserves and those are being sent to market for use in conventional gasoline engines and other such gadgets.

Natural gas will eventually be phased out as a fuel as well, but there are likely to be years in the interim when it will serve as a major source of electric power. And Alaska seems likely to be an important source of that gas.

The blooming expansion of the internet and online activity of many kinds suggests that Alaska’s gas will be much needed for years to come.

The hope is that in the future gas will be converted to energy with zero impact on the environment. That might or might not be possible but in the interim it can be done with very little negative effects.

And that is the direction we should be going in.

Tom Brennan is an Anchorage columnist and author of six books. He was a reporter/columnist for The Anchorage Times and an editor and columnist at The Voice of The Times.