Many of the more than 200 remote communities in Alaska are turning to renewable energy to reduce reliance on high-cost imported fuels, and to ensure more independent and reliable energy availability based on local sources. Alaska is home to a substantial fraction of the developed microgrids in the world. Incorporating grid-scale levels of renewably sourced generation, such as wind and solar power, has led to an unusual concentration of experience and expertise in the design, development, and operation of these hybrid renewables-diesel microgrids.
Many of the more than 200 remote communities in Alaska are turning to renewable energy to reduce reliance on high-cost imported fuels, and to ensure more independent and reliable energy availability based on local sources. Alaska is home to a substantial fraction of the developed microgrids in the world. Incorporating grid-scale levels of renewably sourced generation, such as wind and solar power, has led to an unusual concentration of experience and expertise in the design, development, and operation of these hybrid renewables-diesel microgrids.
This expertise is relevant to other markets, such as enabling operational improvements in cost and reliability for mobile and stationary military installations. In addition, strategies pioneered in Alaska could be relevant to larger regional or continental grids reorganized around microgrids served by local generation, including a general trend toward higher penetration levels of renewable generation. By sharing lessons learned through projects developed in some of the most remote and challenging environments of the world, Alaskans are also playing a key role in addressing energy poverty globally through the development of local solutions that are resilient, reliable, and sustainable.
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