In August, after two hours of discussion, the Homer Electric Association (HEA) approved a measure unanimously: it agreed to buy power from the Puppy Dog Lake solar farm. Don’t be deceived by its small, cute name, though. The project, which will be constructed by Anchorage-headquartered Renewable Independent Power Producers (Renewable IPP), is going to be the biggest solar farm in the state when it is up and running in 2027 or 2028, with installed capacity of 45 megawatts. That makes it significantly larger than the current leader, the 8.5-megawatt Houston Solar Farm, also developed by Renewable IPP and launched in 2023.
As Keriann Baker, chief strategy officer at HEA, told the Homer News, “This is pretty significant. It’s the largest solar project contemplated in Alaska, by far, about five times the next nearest size up in Houston.” In fact, it will include 60,000 solar panels installed across 300 acres, enough to power 9,000 residences. 40 to 60 construction jobs are expected to be generated as a result.
Photo Courtesy Jason Ross, Nikiski Community Council and Park
It has also been a long time in the making. Renewable IPP operates other solar farms, too; its first commercial solar farm in Willow, Alaska went online in 2019, at which time Senator Lisa Murkowski expressed that “Many of our projects to drive clean energy are in their pilot stage, but I look forward to helping mature these projects to ensure cleaner, more affordable energy for communities across the state.”
However, the company has been trying to get a solar farm installed on the Kenai Peninsula since 2021, when Renewable IPP first floated the idea. In 2022, the local Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly approved property tax exemptions for independent power producers like Renewable IPP, with hopes for diversified energy sources and local economic growth.
According to Jenn Miller, CEO of Renewable IPP, the Puppy Dog Lake solar farm will also be the first project from an independent power producer that will forego connection to a local distribution system in favor of the region-wide transmission system: “By tying into the transmission system, for a project this large, it allows the energy to be distributed throughout HEA’s grid. Whereas if you’re in a distribution system, you’re just in a subpart of it and you can’t spread those kilowatt-hours out across the members. This is really going into the backbone of their system for efficient transportation of that energy to their members.”
The company will use a $2 million grant from the Alaska Energy Authority through its Renewable Energy Fund to build a substation near the transmission line. That funding “directly lowered the cost of the project, and then lowered the energy price for HEA members,” Miller noted. The substation will be located on state land made available for the project by the owner, the Alaska Mental Health Trust. As a result, revenue generated through the lease will go toward providing mental health services to those who need them within the state.
Photo Courtesy Alaska Energy Authority
Like the Houston solar farm, the Puppy Dog Lake solar farm may come with significant benefits for local fauna and flora. The Houston farm went above and beyond to protect native soil and vegetation, for example, employing a special mulching technique to promote the growth of blueberry and cranberry bushes. Renewable IPP also partnered with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to study agrivoltaics at the site. As Miller told Inletkeeper, “We’ll be taking the learnings from that and seeing if we can do something similar at Puppy Dog Lake.”
Miller told KTOO Public Media that “When we started the company, our mission was to not only diversify Alaska’s energy generation mix, but to do it in a way that actually reduces energy costs for Alaskans.” This value is also evident under the sustainability branch of the company’s values on its website.
It seems they are achieving that mission, as the resulting benefits to HEA cannot be understated. “This is exciting for HEA because it is below our current cost of fuel today. We are actually going to double our renewable energy, which meets our diversification goal, from 12% to 24%, and we’re going to do it at a cost that is lower than what we’re paying today,” Baker explained to the Homer News. HEA will no longer have to rely on a singular producer of natural gas, Enstar, which Brad Janorschke, general manager, acknowledged to KDLL, the public radio for Central Kenai Peninsula, was a risky arrangement: “When you have one bidder supply 90% of your generation needs, that should raise a red flag. So we’re looking at what gas we use, use less of it, and looking for other means.”
HEA also approved the replacement of a gas turbine at the Nikiski power plant with a more efficient version. With both of these changes to the local energy mix expected in the same time frame, Baker told KTOO that the utility could cut its natural gas usage down by one-sixth. At the same time, she indicated that solar is just the beginning: “Really it’s anything right now. We’ve talked to tidal groups. We’ve talked to geothermal groups. We’ve talked to nuclear groups. We’ve talked to wind groups. I mean, we really are an all-of-the-above utility.” As the Puppy Dog Lake project moves along through the regulatory process, it will indeed be one piece of a larger, cleaner puzzle.
Photo Courtesy Homer Electric Association
