Chugach Electric to install solar panels on power plants and prepares for community solar farm

Chugach Electric Association is installing small solar panel projects on its natural gas plants and is close to launching the first community solar farm in Alaska.

The installations are part of the utility’s efforts to reduce its dependence on carbon-based fuel, the utility said in a statement. It comes as a shortage of natural gas from Cook Inlet could soon force Chugach and other utilities in the region to begin relying on costly imported gas.

Two solar projects are being installed on the utility’s largest power plants in Anchorage, according to the statement. They have a total capacity of 170 kilowatts, which the utility’s chief executive acknowledged in a statement is “relatively small.” (The largest solar farm in Alaska is many times larger, with an 8.5-megawatt capacity, allowing it to power about 1,400 homes.)

The utility is also studying large renewable projects that would be privately operated, such as a wind farm proposed for an area across Cook Inlet from Anchorage.

The solar projects should be operating by November at the Chugach Southcentral Power Project along Electron Drive and at the George M. Sullivan Power Plant off the Glenn Highway. The plants are gas-fired.

“Putting solar panels on our power plants increases the efficiency of the plants and helps offset the use of natural gas,” said Arthur Miller, the utility’s chief executive.

The utility is also working on a four-acre community solar farm that will allow utility members to buy subscriptions to receive power from one panel or up to 20, the utility said. The solar energy will be credited to subscribers’ bills.

The 500-kilowatt farm, with 1,200 panels, will be built next to Chugach’s Retherford Substation on East 94th Avenue in Anchorage, south of the Dimond Center.

The utility is soliciting proposals for the design and construction of the solar farm. It should be running next summer, according to plans, the utility said.