Solar power in Alaska has been primarily used in remote locations,[1] such as the Nenana Teen Center[2] near Fairbanks, where long summer days provide most of the electricity generated.[3][4] In 2015, Alaska ranked 45th in installed solar among U.S. states.[5] Rooftop solar panels could provide 23% of all electricity used in Alaska.[6] Net metering is available for PV systems up to 25 kW but is limited to 1.5% of average demand.[7] IREC best practices, based on experience, recommends no limits to net metering, individual or aggregate, and perpetual roll over of kWh credits.[8]
In 2011, Alaska's largest solar array was the 17.28 kW array installed on a building in Anchorage.[9][10] A 12 kW solar array installed in Lime Village in July 2001 helped reduce electricity costs.[11][12]
Annual insolation and thus power production per capacity installed in Alaska is similar to central Europe, where Germany became a leader in worldwide solar power use in the years around 2010.
|
| Grid-Connected PV Capacity (MWp)[14][15][16][17][18] | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Capacity | Change | % Change | |||||||||
| 2010 | <0.1 | |||||||||||
| 2011 | <0.1 | |||||||||||
| 2012 | <0.1 | |||||||||||
| 2013 | 0.2 | 0.2 | >100% | |||||||||
| 2014 | 0.39 | 0.21 | 20% | |||||||||
| 2015 | 0.72 | 0.33 | 85% | |||||||||
| 2016 | 0.95 | 0.23 | 32% | |||||||||
| 2017 | 1.75 | 0.8 | 84% | |||||||||
| 2018 | 2.78 | 1.23 | 70% | |||||||||
| 2019 | 7.78 | 5 | 180% | |||||||||
| 2020 | 12.1 | 4.32 | 56% | |||||||||
| 2021 | 15.4 | 3.3 | 27% | |||||||||
| 2022 | 18 | 2.6 | % | |||||||||
