She noted that by using this method, her team was able to identify thermal signatures that were well away—almost a mile—from the primary hot spring area.

“And that’s the first time we’ve identified that the overall footprint of that system is much larger than just the signature at the surface.”

This finding served as the groundwork for their 2013 project, and based on the overall results of their research, a power purchase agreement was signed between the City of Nome, the landowner, and a private developer regarding a 2 megawatt power plant. The project is still in the works today.

The importance of projects like these, and their applications to Alaska industry, can’t be understated.

“People don’t always understand the value of research being conducted at the University. I come from an industry background and I really value what the University can contribute. This is a perfect example of innovation and innovative techniques that were pioneered by the University that were then used by private sector to make development decisions,” says Holdmann.

And it turns out—there’s plenty more where that came from.

ACEP is an applied energy research program based at UAF. It was formed over a decade ago with a vision of leveraging university resources and expertise to help solve pressing issues facing Alaska’s energy sector.

The program has grown to include more than sixty researchers, staff, and students, and continues to serve as an invaluable resource for the state.

In a nutshell (which also doubles as the title of ACEP’s latest marketing campaign that consists of a dozen videos detailing recent projects)—ACEP is keeping Alaska’s energy industry competitive.

As Holdmann puts it in her own two-minute clip, the program “is working with our communities and our industries in Alaska to innovate in ways that continue to keep Alaska at the forefront of our energy transition.”

One of the most striking features about ACEP is the sheer number of partnerships they’ve been able to cultivate over what’s been a relatively brief existence. From countless state organizations to establishments like Stanford and the University of Washington, the Fairbanks institution is making waves on a national level. But their influence isn’t just limited to academic circles. Nor is it falling on deaf ears.

“We try very hard to be an objective third party entity that doesn’t advocate for policy but provides good technical support to help people make decisions,” says Erin Whitney, ACEP’s director of the Solar Technologies Program. “That’s very different from a nonprofit advocacy organization, for example. And that’s a very fine line that we have to walk; and we walk it very carefully and very consciously.”

ACEP’s Erin Whitney and Chris Pike talk with Renewable IPP’s Jennifer Miller and Christopher Colbert in front of the Willow Solar Farm.

Amanda Byrd | ACEP

ACEP experiences a great deal of outreach from industry representatives that are either seeking expertise directly or hoping to be pointed in the direction of past partners that might be able to help.

But these partnerships can materialize in other ways as well.

“We also meet people at conferences, and a big part of our job is staying abreast of what the developments are and who the players are,” says Whitney. “And that involves making sure we participate in the right forums, get our research out there, and are contributing in a way that adds value to society.”

One of Whitney’s and the Solar Technologies team’s latest projects has them involved in a multistakeholder collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, research partners in northern Michigan, and Renewable IPP—a local company that develops, builds, and operates utility scale solar farms.

The goal of the project is to test new snow-shedding coatings to be used on solar panels. Alaska and Michigan were chosen as the field sites due to their similar climates and common element of heavy snow fall.

“As part of our field work, we had to find places to test those coatings, and that’s where we’ve formed this great partnership with Renewable IPP to apply the coatings and test them on some of the panels at their Willow array,” she explains.

Whitney says partnering with local companies like IPP helps the University stay connected to the industry’s current concerns, needs, and priorities.

The project is coming up on three years now.

“There’s lot of considerations and modeling that’s gone into this: do these work, are they economically feasible, can they be applied on a large scale, what characteristics do we need… And that’s research; it’s never as simple as you think it is once you get into it.”

While they don’t have anything ready to go to market tomorrow, Whitney says they’ve gathered some valuable information—not only about the coating tech but about Alaska’s suitability as an environment for solar.

“We do see shedding characteristics in different temperature regimes for the coatings. At certain temperatures the coatings seem to shed snow better than at other temperatures, which is sort of an unexpected and not necessarily favorable outcome. Obviously, you’d like it to shed snow all the time. But the nuance here is that snow falls at a variety of temperatures and it has a variety of humidity levels—all those factors influence how snow bonds to surfaces.

ACEP’s Energy Technology Facility operates on the same scale as an Alaska village power plant and is capable of testing a wide range of microgrid generation scenarios.

Amanda Byrd | ACEP

“We’ve certainly learned some very interesting things about coating characteristics, and what works and what doesn’t, and how to potentially design a better coating moving forward in the future. Or maybe apply a totally different strategy: maybe we could heat the backside of the panel, and would that be cheaper economically than trying to coat every panel instead?”

On Alaska’s climate and overall solar potential, she adds: “We have some really interesting performance characteristics of solar panels up here. Our solar panels can be mounted at a steeper angle than elsewhere in the United States because of our sun angles.”

Ground snow coverage can even reflect sunlight back onto the solar panel’s surface if mounted steeply enough, she adds. “And that’s sort of a double whammy of sunlight on those solar panels. And so we actually see very high solar production in the spring months; you’ve got colder temperatures, reflection from snow cover, and a lot more sunlight in that April/May timeframe.

“Our crazy sun angles also give rise to thinking about totally new configurations of solar panels, like vertical panels, because we have such high solar azimuth angles. And so there’s just a lot of very different and creative things we can do up here—and the price has come down enough that it’s economically viable.”

UAF and ACEP regularly contribute a wealth of publications that help guide private sector decision making.

The Solar Technologies Program’s Solar Installation Database is particularly useful. It provides all the pertinent details of facility-scale installation systems across the state. “It’s a living document that we invite updates, corrections, and additions to,” says Whitney.

Their annual Railbelt Net Metering Update is another example. Net metering is a utility program that offers rebates to grid-connected customers who have installed distributed generation systems such as solar or wind.

“Both of these materials—the Railbelt Net Metering Update and the Solar Installation Database—are great benchmarks for the solar industry up here. They give them an indication of where the industry is at in regard to rates of installation, it helps inform things like the net metering cap, and it fuels the discussion about whether that cap should be raised or not.”

Identifying rare minerals, like those used in renewable energy applications and other electronic technologies, can be difficult in a state as vast and geologically diverse as Alaska.

That’s where hyperspectral imaging comes in. And UAF’s Geophysical Institute has the only hyperspectral imaging facility in the state: HyLab.

Hyperspectral imaging (also known as imaging spectroscopy) is an advanced remote sensing technique that analyzes a wide spectrum of light, allowing researchers to measure rather than simply observe from a distance. The technology makes it possible to detect and identify individual minerals in an exposed surface.

Specifically, the Geophysical Institute’s HyLab uses airborne cameras and ground spectrometers to provide detailed maps of an area’s geologic profile. These maps can aid mining experts with their exploration efforts, providing them a more complete picture of an area’s make up.

Alaska has been identified by the US Geological Survey as having “high potential” for containing strategic and critical elements like rare-earth metals. But it continues to be hindered by its challenging geographic environment.

The US Geological Survey also states that hyperspectral imaging can help by its ability to rapidly acquire data about the distributions of surficial materials, including different types of bedrock and ground cover.

Robert McCoy, director of the Geophysical Institute, believes the technology has enormous potential to identify regions rich in critical materials. “Scientists in the Geophysical Institute’s HyLab are ready to work with industry to help find these valuable resources,” he said in a recent press release.

And while HyLab’s headquarters might be a few doors down from ACEP, the overarching mission remains the same.

“It’s a goal for the university to support industrial applications and to help industry and help Alaska’s economy,” says HyLab Director Martin Stuefer. “It’s our goal to help more and to get more involved.”