A 44-acre solar power farm in Wrangell is officially underway after the local borough assembly approved the project at a meeting this week.
The approval comes after the towns main power agency has been looking to increase energy capacity as residential use has increased. The move is also part of the City and Borough goal of incorporating renewable energy.
Wrangell, like Petersburg and Ketchikan, runs mostly on hydroelectricity generated by two lakes. The system is operated by the public nonprofit Southeast Alaska Power Agency or SEAPA.
The island town uses diesel-generated power every June for at least a week while the local hydropower system undergoes maintenance. This year, that short stint is expected to cost Wrangell about a quarter of a million dollars.
But the new solar farm could offset this cost in the future.
“This is huge for our economic development potential,” Mason Villarma, Wrangell’s borough manager said during the assembly meeting.
The solar farm will start with a capacity of 1.5 megawatts, with plans to expand to five megawatts of battery power. That’s enough to keep Wrangell’s lights on during short outages.
“If there’s a bird strike on the lines, or a tree on the lines, or something like that, that fluctuation will just cause the whole grid to go down,” Villarma said.
Villarma said solar energy will complement the existing hydropower system during periods of high demand, especially during the winter. He said the solar farm will also prepare Wrangell for economic development on the horizon, such as a new shipyard that’s expected to be the largest in the region.
The move to renewable energy will also help the town move away from diesel.
“The diesel prices skyrocketed, given the war in Iran and geopolitical events, and as such, this project could fully run the town,” he said. “We wouldn’t have to burn any diesel.”
SEAPA will build and operate the solar farm, leasing the land from the City and Borough of Wrangell for $1 a year. In exchange, Wrangell will get priority for the generated power.
The location is on previously logged land about six miles south of town on the upland side of Zimovia Highway. The borough acquired the land from the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority in March through a land swap.
The power agency has been seeking additional capacity in recent years as residential use has increased. Residents moved from diesel heating to electric heat pumps. There are also more electronics in most homes.
SEAPA also plans to expand its hydroelectric capacity by adding a third turbine at Tyee Lake and a new substation near Ketchikan.
But they also wanted to pursue solar after studying other alternative energy options. They looked at wind, but in Southeast it’s either not blowing or blowing too strongly. Tidal technology is too new, and there are too many unknowns for permitting. And geothermal exploration was too costly.
SEAPA’s CEO, Robert Siedman, hosted a town hall in Wrangell this month about the solar farm.
“It’s built to support local renewable energy goals,” he said. “We want to stay renewable and stay off diesel.”
He said people often question solar power in Southeast — after all, it is a rainforest. But he said solar still works. It just works less, say, than a sunny state like Arizona. He said Wrangell’s farm will run at about 10-20% of capacity over the course of a year.
It’s not clear exactly when the solar project will be complete.
Some of the construction must be completed by July 4 due to limitations in the One Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress last year. The bill killed the 30% federal tax credit for residential solar projects.
The first phase is expected to cost $6 million. SEAPA hopes to use outside funding for most of it, including to save half through investment tax credits. That funding requires the project to be fast-tracked. The borough’s land lease term is 25 years.

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