swimming pool and the hot spring were being heated by diesel fuel , 1,000 gallons every month ! '' Karl said . To slash costs and to use resources that were right under his nose , Karl invented a portable geothermal power plant . In a little more than three years , Karl and his wife have severed the facility 's dependence on diesel fuel and have saved $ 625,000 , he said . Karl 's partnered with the Department of Energy to fund half of a $ 1.4 million exploration project to find and characterize the geothermal resources at Chena Hot Springs . `` It 's a model for what you can do , '' said Karl . Karl developed his tenacity from growing up as the sixth child of 16 siblings on a farm outside of Peoria , Illinois . He said his parents taught him hard work , how to recycle his clothes and shoes , and how to compost food and farm wastes . In the late 1970s , Karl was active in gold mining in Alaska 's Central District , and he established the state 's largest recycling facility in 1984 , he said .
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Hidden under a quaint resort 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks , Alaska , lies a treasure trove of potential energy that 's free and available 24/7 . `` Imagineer '' Bernie Karl and his wife , Connie , own Chena Hot Springs Resort near Fairbanks , Alaska . Alaskan entrepreneur Bernie Karl has pioneered modern technology to tap into one of Earth 's oldest energy resources : hot water . Karl , 56 , likes to call himself an `` imagineer . '' Using imagination to fuel his engineering ambitions , this tenacious thinker and self-starter has figured out a way to generate electricity using water that 's the temperature of a cup of coffee -- about 165 degrees Fahrenheit . `` There 's more opportunity now than there has ever been in the history of man , but we have to reinvent ourselves , '' Karl said . Karl was determined to reinvent the way he consumed energy after he and his wife , Connie , purchased the Chena Hot Springs Resort from the state of Alaska in 1998 . `` After we purchased the hot spring , I could n't believe it , the