The OPALCO Board has appointed Dr. Jerry Whitfield of Shaw Island to fill the board vacancy in District 4 (Shaw, Bell, Canoe and Crane Islands). Dr. Whitfield began his service to the Co-op in March.

Dr. Whitfield and his wife Carol live on Shaw Island and have been OPALCO members since 1999. As a Doctorate Aerospace Engineer, Whitfield has served with such companies as Rolls Royce Aero Engines, General Electric Company and The Boeing Company. An entrepreneur in the renewable energy field since the mid-1980s, Whitfield invented the wood pellet stove, built and led a successful manufacturing company and helped pioneer the wood pellet industry across North America. Lately, Whitfield invented a unique café coffee roaster, Sonofresco; he and his wife run the business in Burlington, WA. Whitfield is also developing product ideas to simultaneously generate carbon negative energy and biochar from surplus biomass materials.