Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Sen. Lisa Murkowski take energy tour of Alaska

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Sen. Lisa Murkowski spent two days in Fairbanks and Anchorage to meet with renewable energy leaders to discuss the importance and future of clean and renewable energy in Alaska. Their visit comes after the recent passage in the Senate of the bipartisan infrastructure deal.

“I’m so pleased to be in Alaska with Senator Murkowski,” Granholm said. “Alaska has got so many communities that are not connected and that are developing their own solutions all the time, and so there is an awful lot that we can learn.”

In Fairbanks, Granholm and Murkowski went to several locations including the National Renewable Energy Lab’s Cold Climate Housing Research Center, the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility and Chena Hot Springs. They concluded their Fairbanks trip by taking a tour of the Alaska Center for Energy and Power at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. They then flew to Anchorage where they had a conversation with National Hydropower Association President Malcolm Woolf at the Lakefront Hotel in Spenard.

“One of the things that I’m just always blown away by is how many island communities you have (in Alaska), and communities that aren’t connected to a central grid, and that’s one area that I think hydropower can really play a role,” Woolf said.

Granholm said there’s a sense of urgency when it comes to the need for different forms of clean and renewable energy, especially in remote communities where energy costs are high.

“You’ve got every kind of renewable energy here,” she said. “You have sun, you have wind, you have hydropower, you’ve got geothermal, you’ve got biomass from the interior forested areas, (and) when you have every bit of the solution out there, this is why Alaska’s leadership in clean energy is so important.”

The second part of Granholm and Murkowski’s visit was to the University of Alaska Anchorage. They met with students and alumni of the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program, and focused on the present and future workforce, and how investments and research will bring jobs to help build the state’s clean energy future. The final stop for the Anchorage visit was at Kincaid Park where they met with Chugach Electric to discuss Fire Island and wind development.

“We have to figure it out, because if we don’t figure it out on our own, then people can’t continue to live in these communities,” Murkowski said.