For remote, wilderness businesses getting electrified is expensive. The easiest option is a diesel generator, but these are polluting, noisy and always hungry for cash. Few operations can ever get rid of them completely, relying on them as a backup, but many members of the Wilderness Tourism Association have found ways to augment their power with sustainable means.Siwash Lake Guest Ranch, a luxury, boutique guest ranch, is one of the few using solar power (pictured). And this fall, with the help of EA Energy Alternatives, the fly fishing and horseback riding operation ramped up their solar feed to offset 90 percent of their diesel generator. The ranch installed a state-of-the-art solar photovoltaic system for electricity creation and also retro-fit the hot water heating system, along with new technology to capture excess energy from heated water. The ranch is also switching from gas powered to solar powered pumps for irrigation and other water systems.
“This project will save $32,000 per year in fuel costs and reduce our annual carbon footprint by 123 tons of green house gases. This is the equivalent of taking 22 passenger vehicles of the road for one year," says Allyson Rogers, owner and proprietor at Siwash Lake Ranch. "At Siwash Lake Ranch we are an advocate of local energy-efficiency and we’re proud to set an example for other small businesses that want to achieve both growth and a small environmental footprint. Our guests are excited about all the work we do to make our operations as sustainable as possible and they’ve told us they also want to support other similar businesses that show innovation and leadership in response to the needs of our planet.”
This is far from all Siwash has committed to doing for the environment. Read more on their website under sustainability or in a stewardship story I wrote about them (you can also read about some other alternative energy projects).
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