Small Arctic village goes solar with a little help from new-technology batteries

In Shungnak, a small Inupiat village in northwest Alaska, a new solar energy project has been installed along with a new-technology battery system that will allow the community to operate free of diesel generation for parts of the year, a company involved in the project says.

Reducing the use of diesel is important. Shungnak receives most of its fuel by air and the cost of transportation combined with current high costs of oil result in local prices of $14 per gallon to $15 per gallon.

The new project is expected to save about 14,000 gallons of diesel yearly. The village used about 140,000 gallons of diesel last year, so the new solar/battery system could reduce that by 10 percent. That’s a savings of about 210,000 annually for the community.

“Solar isn’t the total solution but it certainly helps,” said Bill Stamm, president and CEO of Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, or AVEC, the rural utility that serves Shungnak.

The battery system was supplied by Hawaii-based Blue Planet Energy, with its new Blue Ion LX. The cooperative effort, long in planning, included Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, the rural electric utility, the Northwest Arctic Borough as well as Blue Planet Energy and federal agencies.

It may seem counterintuitive that solar could work in northern climates where darkness reigns much of the year, but solar does quite well during much of the year. There are several months of summer sunlight and even during parts of the winter, particularly the spring, when even low angles of sunlight creates a “bounce” of light off snow.

Funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Northwest Arctic Borough (NAB) – with initial feasibility study and engineering completed by the borough, NANA Regional Corporation and Deerstone Consulting – the development of a resilient microgrid was designed to address several challenges of operating in extreme conditions, and to help break the community’s dependence on expensive and polluting diesel generation.

The microgrid is integrated with 12 advanced Blue Ion LX battery storage cabinets and was installed by Alaska Native Renewable Industries in collaboration with Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, the rural electric cooperfative, and a nonprofit, Launch Alaska, that specializes in commercializing emerging technologies.

“Reducing Shungnak’s reliance on diesel generators is a tremendous accomplishment for the community and further proves the viability of solar-plus-storage in even the most remote locations,” said Edwin Bifelt, founder and CEO of Alaska Native Renewable Industries.

“The complexity of this project required high-quality technology, and we know Blue Planet Energy’s batteries will deliver long-term reliability.”

The microgrid’s 225 kW solar array is able to offset at least part of Shungnak’s energy needs. Twelve cabinets of 32 kWh Blue Planet Energy Blue Ion LX battery systems each store excess energy from solar for later use.

Uniquely designed to enable a “diesels off” operation, the system automatically coordinates between solar and energy storage to ensure lowest cost power and communicates with the AVEC power plant on the best times to turn diesel generation off. The microgrid is expected to save 14,000 gallons of fuel per year, according to people familiar with the system.

“Shungnak relied on a diesel-based power system, and many of the children have never known life in the village without the constant hum of diesel in the background or the smell of exhaust fumes,” said Rob Roys, chief innovation officer at Launch Alaska.

“Blue Planet Energy was critical to the success of this project. Thanks to the energy storage system, we can turn the diesels off but keep the lights on in the community. It also gives the local utility the ability to run on 100 percent clean energy for hours at a time.”

The project is also AVEC’s first integration with solar-plus-storage. Due to the complexities of Shungnak’s primarily unmanned diesel power plant, “We’ve been hesitant to jump into energy storage for a number of reasons, but Blue Planet Energy’s battery technology and chemistry is the best available for rural communities,” said Stamm, of AVEC. The Shungnak microgrid project is AVEC’s highest penetration of solar as well as the utility’s first integration with battery storage.

Ava Gibson, head of sales for Blue Planet Energy, said: “Producing power in rural Alaska is immensely difficult, between transporting fuel into town by plane or boat and battling temperatures that can freeze generator engines.”

“Milestone projects such as this are an exciting promise to the people of both Alaska and rural communities around the world for an energy resilient future.”