"GALENA, Alaska — Eric Huntington built his dream cabin nestled in the wilderness of central Alaska, eventually raising two daughters there. But over the years, he learned that living in this quiet, remote village came with a hefty cost.
Every year, the Huntington family spent about $7,000 on diesel to heat the cabin during bone-chilling winters, and a few years back, a power outage at the town’s diesel plant left residents freezing in minus 50 F (about minus 45 C). When power finally returned hours later, water pipes had frozen, leaving about two dozen homes without running water for days.
“We just didn’t open our door all morning until the lights came back on,” said Huntington, a member of the local Louden Tribe.
In Galena, a sprawling village of 400 people on the banks of the Yukon River, a community built around a former military base is shifting to clean energy in an effort to reduce its reliance on expensive, imported diesel. Local leaders say their nearly completed solar farm, along with an existing biomass plant, will boost the town’s savings and protect residents from blackouts during extreme weather. The technology has the potential to provide clean backup power in emergencies and improve the power grid’s resiliency, all while diversifying the village’s energy sources and providing job opportunities for locals."
Dorany Pineda, John Locher and Mark Thiessen report for the Associated Press June 18, 2025.
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