Alaska

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To get to zero by 2050, Alaska must cut emissions by 3.7% a year

Emissions in Alaska

Million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) [?] equivalent (MTCO2e [?]) emissions

Note: Grey area indicates missing data due to processing delays.
Source: WRI, Mar 2021

This is how we're going to do it

Alaska's climate pollution, by source
🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

Source: WRI, Mar 2021

    Decarbonize Our Buildings

    🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

    9% of Alaska's climate pollution comes from buildings.

    We burn fossil fuels to heat our air, water, and food.

    To cut this pollution...

    Let's electrify our heat!

    We'll replace...

    • Boilers and furnaces with heat pumps [?]
    • Gas stoves with electric induction stoves [?]

    ...in all of Alaska's 111,000 buildings.

    That means we only need to electrify the remaining 111,000 dirty buildings in Alaska. That's around 4,000 per year.

    Source: Microsoft, Mar 2021; NREL, Dec 2021

    Electrifying all buildings cuts 9% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

    Decarbonize Our Transport

    🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

    32% of Alaska's pollution comes from cars, trucks, trains, and planes.

    But mostly from cars.

    To cut this pollution,

    your next car must be electric.

    Or consider going car-free with public transit, bikes/e-bikes, car share, or other alternatives!

    There are 171,000 vehicles in Alaska and 940 are already electric (0.5% of the total).

    We need to electrify (or replace) the remaining 170,000 gas-powered vehicles. That's around 6,000 a year.

    Percent of Vehicles electrifiedA chart showing the share of Vehicles that have already been electrified and still based in fossil fuel.0.5% have been electrified, and the remaining 99.5% are fossil fuel based.Vehicles ElectrifiedNot yetSource: DOT, Feb 2021

    Electrifying all transportation cuts 32% of the pollution.

    🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

    Decarbonize Our Power

    🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

    7% of Alaska's pollution comes from burning coal, gas, and oil to make power.

    Dirty power plant

    To cut this pollution...

    Put solar panels on your roof!

    Then, we'll replace all fossil fuel power plants with solar and wind farms.

    We need to replace dirty power plants with clean ones (mostly wind and solar)

    ...and find good jobs for those workers.

    Current Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Alaska

    5 coal plants

    Name: Healy County: Denali Megawatt Capacity: 93 Utility: Golden Valley Elec Assn Inc

    Healy
    Denali County
    93 MW

    Name: University of Alaska Fairbanks County: Fairbanks North Star Megawatt Capacity: 40 Utility: University of Alaska

    University of Alaska Fairbanks
    Fairbanks North Star County
    40 MW

    Name: Aurora Energy LLC Chena County: Fairbanks North Star Megawatt Capacity: 31 Utility: Aurora Energy LLC

    Aurora Energy LLC Chena
    Fairbanks North Star County
    31 MW

    Name: Eielson AFB Central Heat & Power Plant County: Fairbanks North Star Megawatt Capacity: 31 Utility: U S Air Force-Eielson AFB

    Eielson AFB Central Heat & Power Plant
    Fairbanks North Star County
    31 MW

    Name: Utility Plants Section County: Fairbanks North Star Megawatt Capacity: 23 Utility: Doyon Utilities - Ft. Wainwright

    Utility Plants Section
    Fairbanks North Star County
    23 MW

    13 gas plants

    Name: George M Sullivan Generation Plant 2 County: Anchorage Megawatt Capacity: 418 Utility: Anchorage Municipal Light and Power

    George M Sullivan Generation Plant 2
    Anchorage County
    418 MW

    Name: Beluga County: Kenai Peninsula Megawatt Capacity: 374 Utility: Chugach Electric Assn Inc

    Beluga
    Kenai Peninsula County
    374 MW

    Name: Southcentral Power Project County: Anchorage Megawatt Capacity: 204 Utility: Chugach Electric Assn Inc

    Southcentral Power Project
    Anchorage County
    204 MW

    Name: Soldotna County: Kenai Peninsula Megawatt Capacity: 193 Utility: Homer Electric Assn Inc

    Soldotna
    Kenai Peninsula County
    193 MW

    Name: Eklutna Generation Station County: Anchorage Megawatt Capacity: 171 Utility: Matanuska Electric Assn Inc

    Eklutna Generation Station
    Anchorage County
    171 MW

    Name: Anchorage 1 County: Anchorage Megawatt Capacity: 121 Utility: Anchorage Municipal Light and Power

    Anchorage 1
    Anchorage County
    121 MW

    Name: Nikiski Combined Cycle County: Kenai Peninsula Megawatt Capacity: 81 Utility: Homer Electric Assn Inc

    Nikiski Combined Cycle
    Kenai Peninsula County
    81 MW

    Name: Bernice Lake County: Kenai Peninsula Megawatt Capacity: 77 Utility: Homer Electric Assn Inc

    Bernice Lake
    Kenai Peninsula County
    77 MW

    Name: International County: Anchorage Megawatt Capacity: 46 Utility: Chugach Electric Assn Inc

    International
    Anchorage County
    46 MW

    Name: TNSG North Plant County: North Slope Megawatt Capacity: 26 Utility: TDX North Slope Generating Inc.

    TNSG North Plant
    North Slope County
    26 MW

    Name: Barrow County: North Slope Megawatt Capacity: 20 Utility: Barrow Utils & Elec Coop, Inc

    Barrow
    North Slope County
    20 MW

    Name: Tesoro Kenai Cogeneration Plant County: Kenai Peninsula Megawatt Capacity: 16 Utility: Tesoro Alaska Company LLC

    Tesoro Kenai Cogeneration Plant
    Kenai Peninsula County
    16 MW

    Name: TNSG South Plant County: North Slope Megawatt Capacity: 8 Utility: TDX North Slope Generating Inc.

    TNSG South Plant
    North Slope County
    8 MW

    81 oil plants

    Name: North Pole County: Fairbanks North Star Megawatt Capacity: 181 Utility: Golden Valley Elec Assn Inc

    North Pole
    Fairbanks North Star County
    181 MW

    Name: Lemon Creek County: Juneau Megawatt Capacity: 62 Utility: Alaska Electric Light&Power Co

    Lemon Creek
    Juneau County
    62 MW

    Name: Fairbanks County: Fairbanks North Star Megawatt Capacity: 42 Utility: Golden Valley Elec Assn Inc

    Fairbanks
    Fairbanks North Star County
    42 MW

    Name: Industrial Plant County: Juneau Megawatt Capacity: 42 Utility: Alaska Electric Light&Power Co

    Industrial Plant
    Juneau County
    42 MW

    ...and 77 more

    Find the dirty plants near you

    Source: EPA, Jan 2021

    But wait!

    It's not enough to replace our power plants with wind and solar farms.

    To power our electric cars and buildings, we need two times the electricity we have today.

    In all, we'll need to build 189 megawatt (MW) [?] of wind power and 260 MW of solar power.

    Since the average wind turbine provides 2.75 MW of peak capacity, Alaska would need to install about 69 turbines.

    Since Alaska already has 14 MW of wind and 1 MW of solar, that's 174 MW of wind power we need to build and 258 MW of solar power. That's around 6 MW of wind power and 10 MW of solar power a year.

    Percent of needed Wind & Solar builtA chart showing the share of Solar and Wind capacity that has already been installed and rest to be installed. We are 5% of the way to what we need to be carbon neutral by 2050.MWs of Wind & Solar Built

    Source: EIA, Apr 2022

    Decarbonizing all dirty power cuts 7% of the pollution.

    And gives us zero-emissions power we need to eliminate pollution from buildings and cars!

    🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

    Other Emissions

    🏭 Other: 52%🔌 Power: 7%🚗 Transport: 32%🏠 Buildings: 9%

    The last 52% of Alaska's climate pollution comes from other sources...

    This includes farming, landfills, industry, and leaks from gas pipelines.

    There's no one solution to solve these problems, but there are lots of great ideas:

    • No-till farming to keep CO2 in the soil
    • Capturing methane leaks from landfills
    • Capturing CO2 to make emissions-free concrete
    • Burning green hydrogen to make emissions-free steel
    • Plugging methane leaks from gas pipelines

    That doesn't mean there's no solution, it just means that clean electrification [?] doesn't help with these problems, and you could fill a whole book with covering all of them. We need to encourage our politicians to invest in researching new solutions and implementing existing solutions to these problems!

Ready to do your part?

Learn how to electrify your own machines and pass local policy to electrify the rest

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