Anchorage residents who rely on rooftop solar panels fear natural gas shortages

On a sunny, clear day in June, Joe and Janice Banta stood in their Anchorage driveway, waiting for a truck full of solar panels.

By noon, most of the roof of their two-story house was lit by sunlight, enough to lay two rows of panels.

“It’s a sound investment.” Joe said, “We wouldn’t be doing this if it didn’t make sense.”

The Bantas are self-described renewable energy enthusiasts. A single solar panel is mounted on the roof of a small fishing boat parked next to the garage. An electric car is parked at the end of the driveway.

Janice said their sons helped convince them to move away from fossil fuels to renewables. As a family, she said, they are concerned about climate change, which is caused by burning fossil fuels. And installing solar panels is a big deal because of the “environmental benefits,” she said.

“What they’re really most worried about is the future and whether they’re going in the right direction,” Janice added.

After a rebate from the installer, Alaska Solar, and a federal tax credit, the panels cost the Banta family $16,000. Joe expects the energy savings to fully cover the installation costs in a little more than a decade, with the panels powering his home, car and even an electric bike in his garage.

Joe said another motivating factor is the looming natural gas crisis along the Railbelt. If utilities have to start importing natural gas, electricity prices would likely rise.

“It’s just a wild card,” Joe said. “We all have to be a little prepared.”

This energy bill is becoming more common among Alaska homeowners. Installers like Alaska Solar say sales of rooftop solar panels are skyrocketing. In eight years in business, owner Ben May has seen significant growth.

“In my second year, my business quadrupled with Solarize,” May said, referring to a nationwide campaign to leverage the group’s buying power to make solar panels more affordable.

Sales have stabilized in recent years. May said they plan to install about 120 systems this year.

“Thank God our growth hasn’t been exponential lately,” he said.

Other installers have also seen an increase in demand. GenSolar, an installer in Fairbanks, said sales this year look set to be at least double last year’s.

“This year, it seems like this technology is becoming more and more popular, especially as electricity prices are rising rapidly,” said Konstantin Misyuk, vice president of sales and installation at GenSolar.

Misyuk said many of their customers finance their solar installations, and even then, the monthly payments are less than what their electric bill would be.

Jordan Dubron is co-owner of Susitna Energy Solutions, which primarily does off-grid installations for cabins and shelters. He said there is a “huge desire” to save on fuel costs, and the benefits are immediate.

“They don’t have a utility bill next month, they don’t have a fuel delivery, they don’t spend X amount of money on gas delivery. So they see it pretty immediately,” Dubron said.

May said the increase is due to several factors. The actual cost solar panels have fallen. Solarize campaigns and federal incentives have helped drive prices down even further.

The systems still don’t come cheap — but recent state legislation to help individuals finance solar projects or invest in them as a community is making them accessible to more people.

May said many people, like Joe, are trying to prepare for a natural gas shortage.

“Our customers will be protected from the price shock that will come from having to import natural gas into Southcentral, which is a bizarre thing,” May said. “But that will happen around 2027.”

May added that people are starting to realize that solar power makes sense in Alaska, despite the limited amount of daylight in winter.

“We produce energy in spring, summer and autumn. And then we draw energy from the grid, as always, in winter. Our electricity price is so high that it is still profitable,” he said.

“Even though it’s an extremely seasonal resource, it absolutely works,” said Chris Pike, a research engineer at UAF’s Alaska Center for Energy and Power, who tracks the number of new residential and commercial solar projects that are popping up on the Railbelt grid.

Net metered power — the amount of electricity added to the grid by homes or businesses generating solar energy — increased 32% in 2021 and 18% in 2022.

“It started out exponential. In the last few years, it’s become more linear,” he said. “Since about 2018, 2019, we’ve been adding 2,000 to 3,000 kilowatts a year. That translates to about 400 rooftop installations a year on the Railbelt.”

Pike said the benefits of installing solar panels on roofs are growing and indications are that they will become common in Alaska.

As for the Bantas, Joe said that in addition to the climate benefits and cost savings, he is excited about how cool they will look.

“We’ll style it,” he said. “It’s so shiny and like a new toy.”

They are waiting for the utility to finish connecting the new panels to the grid. He said they are looking forward to another, much lower electricity bill.