4 min read

Alaska energy costs are sky-high. These local leaders have solutions.

Alaska energy costs are sky-high. These local leaders have solutions.

Hey Neighbor,

In Alaska, low-income families spend nearly a quarter of their income on energy. It’s a daily reality in the most energy-burdened state in the country. Despite the challenge of higher costs, rural Alaskans continue to lead with grit, creativity, and a deep sense of responsibility to their communities.

Over the past year, we’ve partnered with AKPIRG and The Alaska Center to document how rural and Tribal leaders are navigating energy solutions in some of the most complex regulatory, cultural, and environmental conditions in the US. These aren’t places where you can put off solving the energy crisis. Costs don’t magically lower. The planes don’t always come. And when the grid fails, the consequences are immediate.

What we’ve learned is this: no one knows the energy landscape better than the people living in it. They know what works. And they know how to get it done — if we meet them with the resources and respect they deserve.

These communities are calling for what they know will make a difference, as outlined in their recent report on Energy Burden in Alaska: 

  • Expanding weatherization and home energy efficiency programs
  • Securing and reforming Power Cost Equalization to better serve those most in need
  • Funding community-led energy planning and technical assistance
  • Reducing match requirements and simplifying access to state and federal funding
  • Investing in renewables, battery storage, and community-owned microgrids
  • Growing the local energy workforce through training and apprenticeships
  • Improving data collection to better measure and address energy burden

Most of all, they’re asking us to listen to local leadership — and to back their solutions with real investment. Because they’ve already done the hard work. What they need now is support to thrive. In this spirit, here are some Alaskan leaders taking the charge on locally-led solutions. 

In Yakutat, kids were going to school in freezing classrooms. The heating system was on its last legs. “Our children were actually cold,” Rhonda Jensen shared with us. With help from Tribal partners, federal health dollars, and a whole lot of grit, they made a fix that was both elegant and efficient: capturing waste heat from the town’s diesel generator and piping it underground to the school, clinic, and tribal center. Not only does this keep kids warm – it saves the town $400,000 annually.

This video was made in collaboration with AKPIRG and The Alaska Center. We’re especially grateful to ANTHC’s Katya Karankevich, and Yaktutat locals Rhoda Jensen, and Casey Mapes for participating in the piece. It was created by the AK-based Akela Space. 

In Nenana, Assistant Principal Stephen Calkin is trying to replace boilers that haven’t worked properly in years. He’s not doing it for the building — he’s doing it for the students. “Every penny we save on electric bills, we’re folding back into the classroom,” he says. With a federal grant, he’s leading an energy retrofit that’s improving air quality, cutting costs, and making sure kids in remote villages have safe, warm places to learn.

“It might not be glamorous,” Stephen shared with us, “replacing boilers or stovetops, but it certainly is helpful for us because every penny we save on electric bills we’re folding into increasing our resiliency and it increases our ability to serve our communities and provide basic needs for our students,” he said. “Eventually, it allows us to spend more money on our kids in the classroom.” Photos taken by the AK-based Akela Space.
We were connected with Stephen, Assistant Principal and Curriculum Director for The Nenana City School District, through the New Building’s Institute, and photos (including this one of the Hot Plate in Nenana) were captured by the AK-based Akela Space. We’re grateful to everyone who participated in telling the district’s story.

Kotlik is a remote, predominantly Yup’ik village of about 600 people in western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, where residents face high energy costs and harsh conditions with resilience and local ingenuity. Here, Richard Bender is rewriting the story of power in his village. “I’m trying to create a healthier community, lower the price of energy, and make it easier to heat homes in the winter,” he shared with us. With federal funding, he’s building a renewable microgrid that cuts diesel use and keeps more money in the community. The end goal? Energy sovereignty. For his neighbors and future generations.

Richard Bender’s story was told in collaboration with AKPIRG and The Alaska Center. We’re deeply grateful to him for welcoming the Akela Space film crew to Kotlik — and for showing how renewable energy can help his village power its future in a way that honors its values and way of life.

Even as federal programs shift or shrink, the needs in Alaska haven’t gone anywhere — and neither has the leadership. These folks are going to continue finding ways to improve their communities. We can sit here with our hands in our pockets, or we can jump into the ring with them — and join the generations of hard-working Alaskans who have fought tooth and nail for locally led solutions. 

We’ll see you out there. 

Resource Rural

Rhoda Jensen, Yakutat Tlingit Tribe executive director, cuts a ribbon to celebrate the completion of a heat recovery project that now warms Yakutat’s school, clinic, and community buildings. Photo by Akela Space.

Madeline McGill