Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents will get extra energy from the solar subsequent summer time. When building is anticipated to be accomplished in Houston on what would be the largest photo voltaic farm within the state, it’s anticipated to provide sufficient power to energy 1400 properties.
The state-owned Alaska Power Authority introduced on October 27 that they’ll lend $4.9 million to the venture.
Curtis Thayer is the Govt Director of the AEA and says that renewables like photo voltaic will assist restore Railbelt communities’ reliance on pure fuel. Thayer stated the state and the governor wish to scale back carbon emissions, however that will not occur in a single day.
“You may’t do all the pieces with wind, all the pieces with photo voltaic, or hydro. There needs to be a steadiness,” Thayer stated. “So the steadiness is, because the expertise advances, hopefully we will wean ourselves off carbon.” , however that is a bridge.”
Thayer stated that further renewable energy wouldn’t elevate prices for shoppers and would even stabilize costs, particularly in the long run. That is doable as a result of the value of photo voltaic has fallen quickly lately — falling 80-90% within the final decade, based on Jenn Miller, CEO of Renewable IPP.
Three years in the past, Renewable IPP constructed what’s now Alaska’s largest photo voltaic farm, a 1.2 megawatt array subsequent to the Parks Freeway in Willow. Now, Miller’s firm is creating the Houston venture beneath the freeway, and it’s set to be greater than six occasions bigger at 8.5 megawatts.
“The view is, ‘Photo voltaic in Alaska? You should be loopy!’ However due to the sudden drop within the worth of the expertise because it’s increasingly more unfold all over the world, that is what now makes it a viable expertise right here within the northern states,” Miller stated.
Miller says the Houston array is well-suited to Alaska’s local weather as a result of the panels are double-sided, optimizing their manufacturing within the winter.
“And so February, March – we’ve got numerous sunny lovely days within the season as effectively. We get extra manufacturing because it bounces off the snow and hits the again of the panel,” Miller stated.
Alaska at the moment will get lower than 1% of its energy from photo voltaic, however Miller says that because the expertise continues to enhance, that quantity might develop to 25% or larger.
The Houston venture is on observe to be accomplished by August 2023.
