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The world’s most unlikely solar farms

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Future Planet

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Climate change

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Solar energy has become so accessible that new farms are being switched on in
the most unexpected places – including in the depths of the Alaskan winter.

Author image

By Jody Ellis

20th February 2020

T

The temperature gauge on my car reads a frosty -16C (3F) as I pull off
the highway and onto the side road next to the Willow solar farm, about
50 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska. The panels, ice-covered behemoths
that rise starkly against the still-dark sky, are incongruous sight in
the snowy landscape. And considering that the sun is just peeking over
the mountains at 9:00am, it also feels like a highly impractical
venture. Standing in the middle of the farm, freezing cold, slipping on
the ice, it is not what you expect when visiting the largest and newest
solar farm in the state.

In northerly regions like Alaska, where daylight hours are minimal for
a good portion of the year, the use of solar power seems improbable, if
not impossible. [30]Nearly 85% of land in the state has at least some
level of permafrost and even in the southern regions, winter months
receive minimal daylight. But this solar farm in Willow, is one of
those proving that solar can work even in the most unexpected cold and
northerly climates.

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Sited a few hundred miles south of the Arctic Circle, the Willow farm
gets less than [34]six hours of daylight during the winter months. In
January, the Alaskan solar company Renewable IPP switched this 10-acre
farm on, making it the largest in the state. Its output is expected to
be 1.35 megawatt hours per year – enough to provide power for [35]about
120 average homes year-round. The farm is made up of 11 rows of panels,
nine 133 kW rows and two smaller 70kW rows that were the farm’s pilot
project.
[p083xmld.jpg]

Solar farms close to the Arctic Circle have become viable with advances
in solar technology and decreasing costs of panels (Credit: Fischer
Knapp)

The [36]pace of climate change in the Arctic and its surroundings is
much greater than other parts of the world, leading to an urgent need
to reduce the use of fossil fuels and expand renewable energy options.
Renewable’s four founding business partners met while working in
Alaska’s oil industry. The four shared a mutual interest in renewable
energy, with some of them having experimented with DIY solar projects
at home. After generating power for their own homes, they wanted to
find a way to expand solar within the state.

“We chose to go with a utility scale solar project, as we felt that
would provide the biggest impact,” says Jenn Miller, chief executive of
Renewable. “We got out and drove piles and built frames, which was
great because we were able to learn a lot, figure out potential design
problems and make changes to create the most efficient model possible.”

Solar viability is a function of two things: solar resource and electricity
prices – Jenn Miller

Their pilot project of two rows of 70 kW panels suggested that the farm
would work on a larger scale. The first rows went in during the summer
of 2018, and after eight months, the costs came in on target, says
Chris Colbert, chief finance officer of Renewable. “We monitored
production throughout the year, which also came in on target,” he says.
That made it easier for them to get the attention of investors to allow
them to expand.

“Solar viability is a function of two things: solar resource and
electricity prices,” says Miller. Alaska’s electricity prices [37]are
almost double the US average, creating a great deal of interest in
alternative technologies. And, perhaps surprisingly, [38]on average
Alaska is a sunny place.
[p083xpt5.jpg]

Electricity prices are high in Alaska, increasing the appetite for
alternatives (Credit: Fischer Knapp)

Renewable’s farm may be the largest in Alaska, but it isn’t the most
northerly; Fairbanks’ [39]Golden Valley Electric Association (GVEA) is
a three-acre solar farm around 200 miles from the Arctic Circle. While
there are smaller farms and solar set-ups further north still, GVEA’s
farm is one of the largst at this latitude in the state.

GVEA began building the farm in 2018 after two years of research,
settling on a piece of land that it already owned and is situated right
behind one of their substations. The farm was up and running as of
October 2018, creating enough solar energy to power approximately 70
homes.

In months like December, when it’s really dark, we just let the snow build
up, as there isn’t enough daylight to warrant snow clearing – Jenn Miller

Once installed, the operating costs for solar farms are minimal,
another aspect that is attractive to investors and builders. There is,
however, one thing that northerly solar farms have to contend with that
their southern counterparts don’t. Willow averages [40]2.2 metres (87
inches) of snow per year, which means solar panels can end up blanketed
in snow and ice during the winter months.

“We have had to hire people for snow removal,” says Renewable’s Miller.
“But in months like December, when it’s really dark, we just let the
snow build up, as there isn’t enough daylight to warrant snow clearing.
As we move into spring, when we are starting to get more hours of sun,
we will come out and clear snow frequently.” At GVEA, they have the
same philosophy on snow removal, leaving the panels buried during the
least productive winter months and beginning scraping around February.

Another solution has been finding the optimal [41]panel angle to help
with snow removal. The snow will simply slide off the more sharply
angled panels. According to Miller, 45 degrees is the preferred angle
for optimum energy production at the Willow farm, which is also a steep
enough slope to help snow slide off the panels.

Renewable is also working with the University of Alaska, as part of the
Alaska Center for Energy and Power solar technology program, on
[42]testing clear coatings that can be applied to panels to make them
slippery and so shed snow more easily. Miller says that this year there
hasn’t been enough snow cover to properly test the coatings, but they
are hopeful that they will mean less maintenance for the facility.
[p083xjxw.jpg]

The efficiency and affordability of solar panels has improved
dramatically since they were first produced (Credit: Getty Images)

Besides the snow, a limitation of northerly solar is not necessarily
the amount of energy produced but the time of year that it’s available:
peak production does not match peak energy use. “In Alaska, we don’t
generally use air conditioning in homes,” says Tom DeLong, board
chairman of GVEA. “So in the summer months, when production is at its
highest, actual kilowatt hours sales are at their lowest. And in
December, when people are using more energy for heat, more electricity,
we get next to nothing from our panels.”

We make more in one day in June than we make for the entire month of December
– Sam Dennis

Lower output in winter is true across the board for the farms, with
Renewable showing winter output as low as 30 kWh, dipping to zero when
the panels are fully covered in snow. On the flipside of that, during
the summer months, when it’s light for upwards of 18 hours a day,
output can exceed 8,000 kWh per day. Sam Dennis, chief operating
officer at Renewable, says: “We make more in one day in June than we
make for the entire month of December.”

The reflection of the sun off the snow on the ground in spring also
helps with output. “We get a lot of reflective light from the snow in
the early spring months,” he says. “This helps increase output. Last
year in March our best day generated an output of 800 kilowatts.”

Despite the limitation of lower output during the winter months, solar
energy is being welcomed as a partial solution to reduce carbon
emissions in the north. Finding local solutions is especially pressing
given the rate at which the Arctic is experiencing climate change.

“Arctic regions often experience warming above the global mean,” says
Shyla Raghav, a climate change adaptation and mitigation expert at
Conservation International. “Solar power can help reduce dependence on
fossil fuels and can be installed off-grid, on-grid, or via a hybrid
system.”
[p083xhv4.jpg]

The cost of producing solar panels as dropped rapidly in the past
decades, making it an ever more accessible option (Credit: Getty
Images)

While the energy produced by solar farms is fully renewable, there is a
carbon cost to installing the farms – there has been some concern over
[43]the carbon footprint of solar farms, but both Miller and Raghav say
the benefit outweighs carbon cost. “Our solar farm pays back the carbon
footprint associated with manufacturing and construction, to include
tree clearing, in three to five years. And a solar farm has an expected
life span of 30 years,” says Miller.

“It’s important to consider the entire life-cycle of energy use and
emissions, to include manufacturing,” adds Raghav. “Most studies that
evaluate solar and wind alongside coal and other fossil fuels [44]have
found that renewable energy has a considerably more favourable carbon
footprint.”

Declining costs associated with solar energy is also an incentive.
Whereas [45]solar was initially expensive to generate, costs have
dropped precipitously and continue to do so. Overall, [46]the cost of
solar panels has consistently fallen in the past 40 years. Even since
the first Willow farm panels went in, prices have dropped. “Our panels
for our pilot project are 340 watts,” says Miller. “The new panels are
370 watt and were 10% cheaper than the pilot panels. That’s in one
year.” Miller anticipates costs for future projects to continue to go
down as solar power becomes more affordable.

Miller says solar use in Alaska is on the rise. According to data from
Alaska’s Solarize Anchorage campaign, [47]in 2018 just 33 homes had
solar installed. As of 2019, that number had jumped to 163.

As the cost of solar has fallen, [48]it has become cheaper than fossil
fuels such as coal. “This means we not only have a positive
environmental impact, but a competitive, positive economic impact,”
says Chris Colbert. The Renewable team plan to expand in the coming
years, and is currently looking for sites for their next solar project,
which they anticipate will occupy 50 to 100 acres. They hope a farm
this size could provide power for 1,000 homes.

The prospect of affordable renewable energy even in these icy northern
regions is a mark of just how far solar power has come. From tentative,
expensive origins, it has reached as far as Alaska in the US – and
[49]elsewhere, even further north. If solar is proving viable even
here, then it is perhaps not just a glimmer of sunlight across a frozen
landscape, but also a glimmer of hope.

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