Spoiler: They won’t. This is the state that brought us “drill baby drill”. 🤷♂️
Solar is more efficient in the cold even if the sunlight is less intense. Wind power is probably a good option too provided they can solve the icing problem.
Solar is not the solution for Alaska’s load. Alaska is a solidly winter peaking usage and a very noticable dropoff in the summer. Wintertime, when there is the most usage, we have about 5 hours of daylight.
In the summer, we have plenty of daylight and very little electrical usage in comparison. Most people do not have ACs up here so unless electric cars and ACs start becoming much more popular, solar has the chance to do more harm than good to the grid during the summer.
I am all for renewables but solar is not the renewable Alaska should be focusing on.
It can work if it’s combined with batteries. And heat pumps are a no brainer, even in cold regions.
tidal and geothermal are options.
I figured ice would be too rough on tidal systems.
Southern Alaska doesn’t get any sea ice and even if they do, Alaska has a bunch of hot springs so Geothermal seems like a useful investment for much of the state.
