Juneau policymakers are eyeing an ambitious goal for the community to use renewable sources for 80 percent for its electricity, heating and transportation needs by 2045.
A key committee of the Juneau Assembly approved the Juneau Renewable Energy Strategy unanimously Monday evening, completing a process that began in 2014. It includes recommendations from the Assembly’s 2011 climate action plan.
The Juneau Commission on Sustainability pushed the plan. It was adopted by resolution, which makes the targets voluntary.
“The plan doesn’t force anybody to do anything,” commission chair Duff Mitchell said Wednesday. “It just says this is where we’d like to go and where it’s economically beneficial and also where it makes sense. Because when you are sustainable and you are efficient, a lot of times your costs do go down.”
Electricity generated by Alaska Electric Light & Power is already almost completely from renewable hydro.
But the commission estimates that 77 percent of overall energy use comes from non-renewables. That’s because most homes and businesses are heated with oil-burning furnaces or other fossil fuels.
Juneau has about 250 electric cars on the road. That’s a steep increase over past years but still a fraction among the gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles. The plan estimates that Juneau imports about $140 million in fossil fuels annually.
The energy plan hopes to change that by encouraging more fossil fuel-alternatives to heating such as electric-powered heat pumps. And by adding more electric vehicles. The plan say that reducing fossil fuels for transportation and heating is the way to get Juneau to the 80 percent renewable target in the next 27 years.
The resolution still awaits a vote by the full Assembly.
