**Title**: Energy in the North - Jason Paskvan
**Date**: October 16, 2024
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Jason Paskvan

00;00;00;21 - 00;00;01;28 [Jason Paskvan] Because instead of buying many, many thousands of gallons of diesel, these utilities are going to be buying solar power.

00;00;07;01 - 00;00;14;01 [Amanda Byrd] This week on Energy in the North, we speak with Jason Paskvan. Jason is the climate and energy specialist at Tanana Chiefs conference. In 1970, Jason's grandfather, Benedict Jones, the first chief of Koyukuk, joined the other first chiefs of the Athabascan communities to ensure respect and representation of all the people in the 37 recognized tribes of Interior Alaska. Today, Jason is managing a portion of the new $62.5 million Alaska Tribal Solar for All grant, which will provide tribal residents on the Railbelt with an opportunity to benefit from solar power. TCC is also working to integrate renewables into their remote communities. I started the conversation with Jason about what it's like to bring tribally owned renewable energy to the communities that his grandfather worked so hard for many years ago.

00;00;53;27 - 00;00;55;10 [Jason Paskvan] You know, I think our tribal members are excited about renewable energy. And the fact that it's going to be tribally owned and not some outside contractor, outside private company that's bringing it in is also exciting. I mean, it's our own people bringing in this technology that's
for our people. And the benefits from that are going to be for our people. I think it's a great story. And I think, it's easy to get excited about this.

00;01;18;04 - 00;01;21;26 [Amanda Byrd] And so you said that it's going to be village owned. Does that make it an IPP?

00;01;21;26 - 00;01;24;02 [Jason Paskvan] Yes. So it'll be tribally owned. In Galena Sustainable Energy for Galena, Alaska, they own the solar panels, the solar installation and they will be the IPP or independent power producer. But for our other villages Tanana Chiefs will be the owner of the these power systems at least for the first, you know, 5 - 10 years that we are required to own it. We hope to impress and do a good job for our communities, because if we can do a good job for communities, you know, we hope that we can maintain that IPP role. There's always, you know, potential in the future that we sell or somehow transfer ownership to the individual tribes. But for at least the beginning portion of these grant funded projects, Tanana Chiefs Conference will be the owner and operator and maintainer of these different solar systems.

00;02;12;29 - 00;02;15;23 [Amanda Byrd] And that's going to be a massive benefit to the communities.

00;02;15;23 - 00;02;18;10 [Jason Paskvan] Yeah. So the benefit we'll see is the batteries allow more backup for if the diesel generators go down for whatever reason the batteries can keep power going for a number of hours. I believe in Manley it's 3 to 5 hours and Hughes I believe it's also around 3 to 4 hours worth of supplying the community load with just the battery alone. And so talking with an engineer from AVEC - Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, they've seen that in their communities where they have installed these renewable systems, that they are able to avoid a lot of mini blackouts. So that's a huge benefit. And it's also a huge benefit that the fact that it's tribally owned and we're selling power to the local utility, the revenue from that electricity generation will go to Tanana Chiefs conference in the cases where it had Tanana Chiefs as the IP and from there, you know, will retain some portion of that for operation and maintenance and the rest of that revenue we can distribute to the to the local tribes. So it's cleaner energy, a more reliable grid, a resilient grid and the revenue is directly going to tribal members. And before these solar installations, you know, all of that revenue would go to the diesel suppliers because instead of buying many, many thousands of gallons of diesel, these utilities are going to be buying solar power from the IPP, that's Tanana Chiefs Conference in our case.

00;03;44;14 - 00;03;58;22 [Amanda Byrd] Jason Paskvan is a climate and energy specialist at Tanana Chiefs Conference. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.