Why Rural Alaska Is Integrating Lots of Renewable Energy

According to this article in Scientific American called What Rural Alaska Can Teach the World about Renewable Energy, “Remote communities have integrated renewables into their diesel-based power grids with more success than anywhere else.”

Let’s be honest; there is really one overriding reason that this is true: they’re highly motivated to make this happen because of the incredibly high price of electricity, which can hit $1/KWh, due to the extreme expenses associated with trucking diesel fuel across long distances through horrific terrain.  That would get anyone’s attention in a heck of a hurry.

One could hope that the folks up there have an environmentalist bent as well, which wouldn’t be too shocking given the rapidly warming temperatures, the rising sea levels, the melting of the permafrost, and the consequent destruction of these folks’ homeland.  A countervailing force, however, might be Alaska’s “God and Country” red state mentality, and the accompanying belief that oil is “America’s fuel,” just like Wheel of Fortune is “America’s game,” and Budweiser is “America’s beer.” How many other states would have elected Sarah Palin governor?

In any case, dollars and cents are the predominant motivating factors in making these transitions, which happens to be the theme of 2016’s Bullish on Renewable Energy, another book by … what’s his name?