Alternative Energy Possibilities in Alaska

Does Alaska Have the Resources for Alternative Energy?

The question you may be asking yourself is whether or not this alternative energy could be applied to Alaska's resource? Could these renewable energy sources actually benefit us here in the "Last Frontier"? The answer is yes! Alaska is in a unique position in which it could be a leader in the drive for cleaner, alternative energy (8). In fact, many of these alternative power solutions are already being used here in Alaska such as hydroelectric dams in certain rivers, wind generators in high wind areas, and solar panels to subsidize power supply for rural villages. In the following section, we will discuss existing projects, and projects which if funded may change the way in which parts of Alaska provide themselves with power.

Wind Power in Alaska

Alaska is a particularly good place for wind, especially along the ocean and West Coast of Alaska. Here in Alaska, we actually have the largest areas of class 7 wind areas in the entire United States, where class 7 is most consistant and strong winds (8). This makes Alaska an excellent candidate for creation of wind farms in these areas! With some areas in Alaska paying close to $1 per kWh, this would be a much cheaper alternative to those living out in these rural regions of the map.

A single 1000 kW wind turbine is capable of displacing more than $55,000 dollars worth of diesel fuel at around $3 per gallon which is a huge amount of savings for people forced to pay that amount to survive. In Kotzebue, the Kotzebue Electric Association (KEA) built 3 wind turbines in 1997, which worked so well that they have increased that number 14 over the course of twelve years which provide a total of around 950 kW. They hope to continue this trend until they can generate 2-4 MW of power in the not too distant future. Just providing that initial amount of power, along side their existing diesel generators, brought the price per kWh down from $0.49 to $0.12 (8).

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Solar Power in Alaska

While anyone who has lived for any amount of time in Alaska will know that during the winter months, Alaska is rather dark and not ideal for solar energy to be used. It is unfortunate that during the winter when we have our greatest energy need, solar power is not a viable option. However, during the summer, we actually get more sunlight than the equator! (8) During the summer time, solar power is a perfect choice for generating electricity in much of our state and especially here in Fairbanks where the summers can be long and without much cloud cover until late into the summer. Besides using the electricity for running household items, the energy from the Sun can be used to heat household water. Since even during the summer, people need showers and hot running water, this is a cheap and effective way to allow for a hot water heater to run.

"Another emerging technology in solar electricity generation is concentrated solar power, which uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect the solar energy and heat a thermal oil. That thermal energy is then used to produce electricity via a heat exchanger that vaporizes water to drive a steam turbine." (8) This kind of technology is already being used in Nevada where this exact kind of power generation provides 64 MW of power! If the low efficiency of photo-voltaic cells is unable to be surmounted, this may be the way to use the solar energy more efficiently and remaining a renewable energy since only steam is produced as a byproduct and no fossil fuels or other form of fuel is used in the process as the oil is simply heated, not burnt.

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Water Power in Alaska

Alaska "has over 50 percent of the nation's wave energy resources and over 90 percent of the counry's river current and tidal energy resources." (8) With this amount of water power available to us, we would be remiss if we were to not use this power as best we could to help produce power. As stated in the page on tidal power, there is an estimated 150-750 terawatts of recoverable power from the ocean and with more than 44,000 miles of coastline, we could better tap into this resource than anywhere else in the United States! (8) The technology required is being researched and built, but within my generation's life time, it would not be a surprise to find many of our coastal areas run off of this naturally abundant source of energy.

Alaska also has many rivers which could be used to run generators. This is Alaska's highest usage of alternative energy at this point in time, with up to 24% of the state's power actually being generated using hydroelectic power plants (8). A very good source for hydroelectric power is from glacial runoff which is rather common in Southeast Alaska and places like Denali where the entire Nenana River is created from nothing but glacial runoff. By 2012, the Denali area hopes to tap into the Nenana's rushing water to power many of the tourist areas in the National Park to allow for much cheaper costs in electricity during the summer.

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