Posts / Energy Policy / Renewable Energy
In the midst of quarantines, social distancing, and uncertainty, we have some much-needed good news to report. On March 20, just before it set aside all non-essential business, the Alaska Legislature passed historic legislation to reform the Railbelt electric grid. The...
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Land-based wind energy is now the cheapest electricity on the planet. In Alaska, there are abundant wind resources available for energy development. High costs associated with fossil fuel-based generation and improvements in wind power technology make this clean, renewable...
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The cost of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power has decreased by eighty-nine percent over the last decade and it is now the second cheapest electricity on the planet, according to the research firm Lazard. This precipitous drop in cost, along with successful community...
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Alaska has thousands of miles of coastline, providing potential for tidal and wave energy development. Alaska rivers can also be a potential resource; river in-stream and tidal energy technologies could supply some of Alaska’s energy needs. Tidal and river in-stream energy...
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Hydroelectric power, Alaska’s largest source of renewable energy, supplies roughly a quarter of the state’s electricity in an average water year. In 2018, 50 hydro projects provided power to Alaska utility customers, including the Alaska Energy Authority owned 120-MW...
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Alaska has three distinct geothermally active regions: the Interior hot springs, running from the Yukon Territory of Canada to the Seward Peninsula; the Southeast hot springs; and the “Ring of Fire” volcanoes, which include the Aleutians, the Alaska Peninsula, the Wrangell...
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Alaska’s primary biomass fuels are wood, sawmill waste, fish byproducts and municipal waste. Wood remains an important renewable energy source for Alaskans. More than 100,000 cords of wood are burned in the form of cordwood, chips and pellets annually. Wood-heating systems...
view morePeople, Policy, & Finance / Energy Efficiency / Renewable Energy
With 16 percent of the country’s landmass and less than 0.3 percent of its population, Alaska’s unique geography has driven development of its energy supply infrastructure — power plants, power lines, natural gas pipelines, bulk fuel tank farms and related facilities. ...
view morePeople, Policy, & Finance / Energy Efficiency / Energy Policy / Renewable Energy
In 2008, the Cold Climate Housing Research Center published the first of two reports outlining recommended state programs, initiatives, and goals to reduce end-use energy demand and keep hundreds of millions of dollars in the state’s economy each year. That year, the state...
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Since 2006, we have published a comprehensive atlas detailing Alaska’s renewable energy resources in cooperation with the Alaska Energy Authority. The Renewable Energy Atlas of Alaska contains maps of the state’s wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, biomass, and tidal energy...
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The Alaska Wind Working Group (AWWG) works to improve and expand Alaska’s wind systems by providing a platform for information sharing and collaboration with people both inside and outside of Alaska. We have facilitated the AWWG since 2005, bringing together state...
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Since 2014, REAP has been advocating for the creation of a new regional organization to unite all six Railbelt utilities. On March 20, 2020 the Alaska Legislature finally passed a bill to ensure that an Electric Reliability Organization, or ERO, will be created. The new ERO...
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