An Alaska village will own its solar power — and sell it back to the utility

In the remote Interior village of Allakaket, a solar-and-battery system going up with nearly $3 million in state grant money will do more than cut diesel use. The village itself will own it.

Under the plan, Allakaket Village would own the renewable assets and sell the power to its utility, Alaska Power & Telephone, as a cheaper alternative to diesel — a shift that turns a community long dependent on fuel flown or barged in into an energy producer of its own. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is developing the project.

It's one of two AP&T-area projects funded in the new state budget. A separate $2 million grant would expand the reservoir at the Goat Lake hydroelectric project, storing more water so the region leans less on diesel. Backers project it would avoid burning some 7 million gallons of diesel over time and return more than six times its cost — figures that, like most such estimates, are projections.

Both land in a region that pays among the highest energy costs in the country, where AP&T serves 40 small communities across Southeast and the Interior. For places like these, every gallon of diesel not burned is money that stays home.