As the American Solar Energy Society prepares to kick off it’s National Solar Tour; more states are offering incentives to help people go green with solar. But that’s not the case in Alaska, a state with massive oil resources. So in Alaska it takes guts to go solar. Take the case of Phil St. John, MD. Phil lives on an island in the Cook Inlet. He moved to Alaska nine years ago after falling in love with it while on a fishing trip with his son. He had been practicing medicine in California. “What my fellow Alaskans have proven here is that solar technology is viable. He lives off the grid as do many Alaskans. Alaskans are forging ahead despite the fact that they don’t have the net metering and state cash rebates available in many other states. He helped coordinate the Alaska Solar Tour.
Dr. Phil said he was delighted with the sheer number of site hosts — and the groundswell of Alaskans who participated in the tour. “We expected a handful of tour site hosts, and ended up with 30 who accommodated nearly 500 Alaskans across a 1,200 mile geographic area. Alaskans’ enthusiasm for the power of solar energy is strong. If sticking with traditional fossil fuel-fed energy sources is the norm, Alaskans are going rogue over the benefits of solar technology.
“One community outside of Wasilla was offered a $250,000 state grant to support interconnection,” he noted. “Considering all the public goods charges, taxes and related costs associated with being attached to a utility, they opted to stick with their independent resources. About 50% of the tour sites featured folks who deployed solar and wind turbines and were living comfortably off the grid. The bulk of them focused on solar thermal technologies, which is usually more cost-effective and tends to have a faster payback than solar electric technologies.”