Matanuska-Susitna Borough residents will get extra energy from the solar subsequent summer time. That is when development is anticipated to wrap up in Houston on what would be the state’s largest photo voltaic farm, anticipated to supply sufficient vitality to energy 1,400 properties.
The state-owned Alaska Vitality Authority introduced on October 27 that it’s going to lend $4.9 million to the challenge.
Curtis Thayer is the Government Director of the AEA and says that renewables like photo voltaic will assist restore Railbelt communities’ reliance on pure gasoline. Thayer mentioned the state and the governor wish to scale back carbon emissions, however that will not occur in a single day.
“You’ll be able to’t do every part with wind, every part with photo voltaic, or hydro. There must be a steadiness,” Thayer mentioned. “So the steadiness is, because the know-how advances, hopefully we will wean ourselves off carbon.” , however that is a bridge.”
Thayer mentioned that extra renewable energy wouldn’t elevate prices for customers and would even stabilize costs, particularly in the long run. That is potential as a result of the worth of photo voltaic has fallen sharply in recent times — 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 growing the Houston challenge below the freeway, and it’s set to be greater than six instances 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 know-how as it has been unfold increasingly more around the globe, that is now what makes it a viable know-how right here within the northern states,” Miller mentioned.
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 a whole lot of sunny stunning days within the season as properly. We get extra manufacturing because it bounces off the snow and hits the again of the panel,” Miller mentioned.
Alaska at present will get lower than 1% of its energy from photo voltaic, however Miller says that because the know-how continues to enhance, that quantity might develop to 25% or increased.
The Houston challenge is on observe to be accomplished by August 2023.
