Hughes Solar and Storage Project, Alaska

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Due to its location 210 air miles northwest of Fairbanks, the Native Village of Hughes, Alaska relied heavily on diesel fuel delivered via air and boat for all of its non-harvested commodities. To eliminate this dependence on imported fossil fuels, Hughes created the Sustainable Solar Energy for Hughes Village project. Hughes set a goal to reduce its fuel use by 50 percent over 2010 levels by 2025. The project also included a replicable photovoltaic (PV)-diesel hybrid electric system to be deployed in Alaska Native villages across the State. The system was designed to: Increase tribal energy security and tribal resilience, producing an approximate 30-percent reduction in fuel use for electricity production in the community. Implement a financial model that allowed for tribal ownership of such a system while not negatively affecting the payments to the community through the State of Alaska Power Cost Equalization (PCE) Program. In 2019, Hughes finished installing the 120-kilowatt (kW) solar PV array in conjunction with a lithium ion battery bank. The system supplies electricity to the local village electric grid and also offers electricity for the 50 buildings with electric meters in Hughes. It is the largest solar PV array installed in a rural Alaskan community to-date, and it allows the community to run solely on solar power during the summer when solar production peaks.

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