By ALEX GIMARC
Suzanne Downing’s article on the most recent Board election of the Chugach Electric Association got me thinking, usually a dangerous, painful action.
If the Alaska Center and the Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP), two sides of the same coin, now are in charge of the Chugach Board of Directors, what is it that they have actually won? Are they in position to do some actual damage to energy here in Southcentral, or are they in the same position that a dog that has been chasing vehicles up and the down the streets for years after he finally catches one? What do they do next?
With any luck, it will be the latter, though I expect they will make every attempt to do the wrong thing, supporting the most expensive, the least efficient, the most unstable, the least reliable, and the least environmentally friendly generation choices humanly possible. Yes, this means renewables.
Their problem is that the climate change world has changed. It started changing Nov 5, and that change has only accelerated since Jan 20, Inauguration Day.
We discovered several things over that time. First, and most importantly, is that climate change and all renewable projects (renewables for renewables sake) ended up being simply a form of grift, where tens of billions of dollars were disbursed to build all manner of wind and solar projects, most of which were expensive failures from a generation standpoint, but spectacular success in putting money in the pockets of donors to future democrat election campaigns. Rural broadband is similar grift here in Alaska.
That is what the $93 billion in grants, loans and commitments pushed out of the Department of Energy over a period of 76 days following Trump’s election is all about. In its previous 15 years, the Loans Programs Office committed only $42 billion.
It was that money that the renewables advocates on the Chugach Board were counting on to fund their hoped for large solar and large wind projects in the MatSu. That money is gone, and won’t be back for at least three years, if not longer.
What to do next? One observation is that we are now hearing noises from the Alaska Center / REAP crowd about their support of “all forms of energy,” a mix of generation sources all happily playing together in the same generation portfolio. You’ve got to give these guys credit for turning on a dime and changing their message in near real time.
But what does all forms of energy really mean? For one thing, it means we are going to be seeing reactors, small modular Generation IV (GenIV) reactors in Alaska. The first one will show up at Eielson Air Force Base courtesy of the congressional delegation. The Trump Administration is pushing small modular reactors, particularly at military bases, so we will be seeing a lot of them. I could envision several more in Alaska, all sited at military bases. Of course, the Alaska Center / REAP crowd managed to defeat the two board candidates knowledgeable of and willing to consider reactors.
The other thing we have in the not-so-distant future is a natural gas pipeline of some sort from the Slope. How long that takes is anyone’s guess, but I think we are a lot closer than we have been in years.
What does the new landscape look like? Big Wind and Big Solar are off the table for years. Reactors and natural gas are on the table. While I would personally like coal, coal to liquids (Fischer Tropsch, CTL) and gas to liquids (Fischer Tropsch GTL) on the table, I’ll take what I can get.
Three additional observations for your consideration.
The first is that wind farms operate by virtue of waivers allowing them to kill large numbers of birds. Remove those waivers, better yet simply treat them like we currently treat natural gas and oil exploration, and they can no longer operate.
Second, is that wind turbines and solar arrays are notoriously difficult to recycle. Today, they are simply dumped. The 2023 photo at the top of this column is a wind turbine dump in Sweetwater Texas (Texas Monthly.) Somewhere along the line, this toxic waste will need to be dealt with.
Finally, all is not lost, as battery technology is moving very quickly. While it is not good enough yet to be economically viable on a regional basis, that technology is making large strides. Given Tesla’s commercial involvement in this field, nothing 4-5 years down the road would surprise me. I would expect home-sized battery backup will become economically viable first.
The Alaska Center and REAP managed to catch their prize. We are about to find out if they are smart enough to operate in the Brave New World of 2025.
Happily, whatever happens, there will be another board election next year for at least two board members.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
A recent analysis by the Heartland Intitute’s Arthur B. Robinson Center for Climate and Environmental Policy found that wind and solar are between 3 and 10 times more expensive than other more common sources of electrical generation, they’re also now where near as “clean” as advertised, and obviously nowhere near as reliable. ‘https://heartland.org/opinion/affordable-reliable-and-clean-an-objective-scorecard-to-assess-competing-energy-sources/’
Get all of the Democrats to blow on the blades when the wind is dead or dying. As for solar in Anchorage, they can stick it where the sun don’t shine. Democrats are very familiar with that territory.
The greens are in charge, now what?
Higher energy rates.
Brownouts and blackouts
Rationing of electricity.
Required “SMART” meters
Reduction in open spaces (gotta fit those solar panels somewhere…)
The hippies are in charge of electricity?
God help us, they can’t even fix potholes correctly (or anything else)
Say goodbye to the Eklutna Power generator and Hello to skyrocketing electric bills.