Ice Breaker: Q&A with NREL Alaska Campus Director | News

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Originally a mechanical engineer, Bruno Grunau now spends his days testifying before Congress, meeting regularly with the Alaska Governor’s office, and learning from utilities, communities and the Alaska Native peoples whose ancestors have lived here for thousands of years.

Grunau is the regional director of applied research for communities living in extreme environments at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Alaska campus. We caught up with him to recap the recent Sustainable Energy Conference in Alaska and find out what’s next for the nation’s only Arctic nation.

What was NREL’s role at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference?

Alaska is leveraging renewable resources and energy efficiency as the answer to economic empowerment and energy independence. The Governor is hosting this conference to convene energy sector leaders, investors and innovators, state and federal agencies, and researchers like me to plan for the state’s long-term energy security future.

NREL Director Martin Keller moderated the panel at the May 2024 conference, and NREL was well represented among the participants and presentations. Did you know that when COVID-19 protocols eased, Alaska Governor Dunleavy was the first guy to knock on NREL’s door for a meeting? We currently meet with the governor’s office twice a month.

What do we know about renewable energy opportunities in Alaska?

Alaska has a lot of untapped potential. For example, the offshore energy potential of the 48 states totals approximately 1,700 gigawatts of electricity. He is’nt bad. But according to a recent assessment of wind, wave and tidal energy resources that NREL conducted for the U.S. Office of Ocean Energy Management, Alaska has more than twice that amount. Cook Inlet has some of the strongest tides in the world! Of course, we need to figure out how to get marine power to the people, businesses and services that need it, but that level of power would be enough for all of North America.

Wow, that’s a lot. What else makes Alaska’s energy system unique?

Instead of a centralized grid, Alaska’s power system is more like an extension cord running through major population centers. The Railbelt power grid running from Fairbanks through Anchorage to the Kenai Peninsula accounts for 75% of Alaska’s electrical load. We will need to make significant improvements in transmission to support the predicted trend towards greater electrification – strengthening infrastructure for increased electron flow from devices such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.

Does renewable energy integration make financial sense?

The Governor’s Office has asked NREL to study the economic and reliability implications of powering the rail right-of-way with 80% renewable energy. In our models, capital expenditure is offset by estimated savings of $100 million per year in fuel costs, and supply and demand can be reliably managed with proper system engineering. Associated benefits include job creation, improved air quality and stabilized rates decoupled from the volatile fuel market.

How do Alaskan villagers gain power?

In addition to the railroad right-of-way population, Alaska is home to about 225 rural, mostly indigenous communities that are essentially diesel-powered microgrids. These cities offer 225 opportunities to explore different ways to decarbonize, and this is already happening in exciting ways. I think there is a lot of potential to use solar, wind and hydropower combined with energy storage and exciting opportunities for hydrogen.

How does NREL engage with Alaska Natives?

We work with communities that have lived in this landscape for over 10,000 years, so our approach is always to work in partnership to understand their needs, provide appropriate support and work with them to combine their traditional knowledge with the latest available and appropriate technology. One example is our collaboration with the Asa’carsarmiut mountain village tribe to address housing insecurity while developing modular, energy-efficient building designs.

The vision of NREL’s Alaska campus is to integrate scientific research and cultural knowledge to unleash a sustainable and just energy transition, with a focus on rural, remote and island communities in the world’s most extreme environments. This could mean Arctic communities, although the solutions can be replicated in island communities and extreme environments around the world.

What technologies excite you?

In Alaska, 80% of our energy consumption goes to space heating. We have heat pumps in the lab that operate at minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit, a technology that didn’t exist 10 years ago. But the cheapest kilowatt-hour is the one you’ve never used, so researchers are specializing in building compartments that are optimized for health, durability and energy efficiency that can still cope with Arctic conditions.

By building a net zero home, you are a great ambassador for energy efficiency.

Yes, we were one of the first essentially net zero homes in Alaska. It’s a way of living our values, but everything we put in has paid off. My wife is an architect and I had an engineering background to draw on. One of my first projects in the Fairbanks lab was to evaluate a cellulose-based insulation material, which is made primarily of recycled paper that retains heat while allowing water vapor to pass through the wall. This is important because many of the housing problems here are due to condensation and mold. We talked the builder into installing this experimental wall system in our home and it became his favorite material because it could be easily made locally.

Has your unique home impacted your family life?

I have two children who grew up believing in the values ​​of sustainable development and now promote them themselves. Russell, our 8-year-old, wants to build robots to save the world from climate change, and 11-year-old Annabelle was recently selected to compete in a NASA climate science competition. I was fortunate to be her chaperone at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory during the award presentation. I am honored to be around so many people who do incredible work both at home and at NREL.

Learn more about NREL’s active projects in Alaska. Sign up for NREL’s Energy Systems Integration newsletter for more Q&A with researchers, and browse job openings to see what it’s like to work at NREL.