Anchorage ACEP Affiliates Visit Fairbanks Campus

Last week, a group comprising ACEP’s Anchorage-based interns, graduate students and staff visited with the Fairbanks research staff, faculty and students. The group also toured the Fairbanks ACEP research facilities.

Michelle Wilber is an ACEP intern embedded at the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative (AVEC), which serves as the utility for 58 remote communities in Alaska. Michelle is working on a grid-bridging project with AVEC to increase renewable energy penetration in its communities. Nelson Crockett is a graduate student in computer science who works directly with research professor Erin Whitney on Alaska solar photovoltaic performance and data analysis.

Bailey Gamble is a joint employee with Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) who connects ACEP’s research projects with ANTHC’s on-the-ground deployment capabilities. Tashina Duttle is the program manager for the Rural Energy Initiative at ANTHC. Also on the visit was Americorps VISTA volunteer Amanda Setiawan, from ANTHC, who is helping with research related to ACEP’s National Science Foundation Food-Energy-Water grant in remote Alaska communities.

During the visit, the interns toured the Energy Technology Facility, featuring the Power Systems Integration Lab, the Diesel Bay and the Hydrokinetics Bay. They also toured the bifacial solar photovoltaic test site on campus and joined Tom Marsik for a tour of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC), where Marsik holds a joint research position with ACEP.

 ACEP’s Anchorage-based interns toured the bifacial solar panel installation on the UAF campus during their visit to Fairbanks. Photo by Amanda Byrd/ACEP.