Sustainable energy conference kicks off in Anchorage

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The three-day Alaska Sustainable Energy conference kicked off Tuesday in Anchorage.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the conference is about discussing new ideas to help Alaska and people’s individual communities.

“Together, I think we’re going to build Alaska. And quite frankly, I think we can be a model for the world in terms of how we once again generate electricity, distribute electricity, store electricity,” Dunleavy said.

Sen. Dan Sullivan also spoke during Tuesday morning’s opening remarks. He said Alaska’s opportunities with regard to resource development in energy are endless.

“This conference will showcase these opportunities both for developing traditional energy, transitional energy, alternative energy, carbon capture,” Sullivan said.

“We have wind, we have sun to harvest energy, we have enormous hydropower potential, river power, potential all being utilized, but can be more utilized across the state,” Sullivan said.

During a panel, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Dave Turk was asked about what clean energy success stories the state has already seen.

Turk spoke about Shugnak, a village that’s made a big change toward sustainability.

“They’ve actually saved $200,000 a year off of expensive diesel and building out the wind, the solar and some storage. And we see some replication of that again and again across the state. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. It doesn’t mean it’s quick,” Turk said.

Turk says Alaska does have some success stories, but there’s a huge opportunity for them moving forward.

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