  **Title**: Energy in the North - Phil Wight
**Date**: June 17, 2026
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Phil Wight

00;00;00;02 - 00;00;07;08 [Phil Wight] The purpose of this smaller system is really to offset electrical loads in your house in real time.

00;00;07;11 - 00;00;13;27 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I speak with Phil Wight, a 日韩无码 associate professor of history and Arctic Northern Studies. When I think about residential solar, I think of rooftop solar or an array sitting in a field with a broad open area around it. Both models have expensive upfront costs associated with the purchase, installation and utility hookups. But there's another kind of solar power that might be a game changer for residents who either don't own their own homes or who can't afford the upfront costs. I began the conversation with Phil by asking him, what is this new type of solar?

00;00;39;29 - 00;00;41;08 [Phil Wight] So this is plug in solar or what some people are calling balcony solar. I prefer to call it plug in because not everybody is balcony. Especially here in Fairbanks, Alaska. And so this is a form of solar installation, which is relatively small, but it's also quite affordable. And it's portable. Rather than, you know, a big rooftop array that might cost 30 or $40,000 and be 10,000W. What we're talking about this is 600W, 800W, maybe 1200 watts. So a fraction of the size, but also a fraction of the cost. And, unlike traditional net metered rooftop solar that feeds power back into the grid, and you get compensated for that power that you feed back to the grid. The purpose of this smaller system is really to offset electrical loads in your house in real time. You are just trying to offset your refrigerator or whatever else. And one of the brilliant things about this technology is that you just plug this into a regular outlet, ideally a dedicated circuit with nothing else on it. You typically do not need an electrician. It's very DIY friendly.

00;01;49;11 - 00;02;03;07 [Amanda Byrd] I'm going to back up a second, are you saying that I can take a solar array that can go over my balcony and hang off something and plug it into my wall socket of my house that I get power from and generate power and offset my electricity in my house.

00;02;10;23 - 00;02;16;03 [Phil Wight] Yes. It basically, yeah, it seems it seems too easy. It seems too good to be true. It seems like, you know, what's what's the catch to this. And let's, let's talk about some of those catches. Because I am not saying that people should go out tomorrow and do this right. Anytime you plug something into your home, you know you need to be an informed consumer. There are ways to abuse electric appliances. Now, you know you don't want to daisy chain a bunch of electric heaters together. So it's important to know what you are doing and to consult a professional. That being said, there are now inverters that are on the market. This is the brains behind the system that takes the DC electricity from the panels and converts it to a 120 volt AC electricity, which is used in our households. And, you know, there are now companies like APsystems, which, make, you know, reputable rooftop solar inverters that are selling this inverter called the EZ-1 in all 50 states that you can order online today. It's UL listed, it's high quality product. And, you know, you basically just find two solar panels. You put them in a suitable sunny place. This could be on a balcony. This could be in a backyard. It could be anywhere. Right. The electricity produced on the solar panels when they are producing, because obviously they don't always produce, helps offset what you are using in your home. One of the important things to keep in mind here, too, is that if you go ahead and install one of these systems they are now selling a little device that basically makes sure that you never back feed to the grid, because you can install one of these devices today. That is 100% legal. Anybody can do that. It's just like plugging in an appliance in your home, right? You have full discretion over that. But the crucial threshold is the moment where you are generating power that could flow back into the grid. Right. This is the key question. You know, traditionally, this was a big problem and a big no, no, because, you know, say we have a big windstorm and the power's out or something like that. And we have line workers up there. You do not want to be putting power back into the grid when those line workers think that that line is down. So there's a UL certification that's come out from this. UL 1741. So any inverter that's installed needs to be UL 1741 that protects our line workers. When the great is down, you will not be producing solar from these systems, just like our existing grid tied systems that are on to 40V. Right now for GVEA in interior Alaska. GVEA does not currently have a formal policy on plug in solar systems. And GVEA鈥檚 existing interconnection requirements were developed for traditional solar installations and do not specifically address this newer technology. So this is a gray area, right? And it's a gray area that GVEA is, you know, actively researching and looking at. And staff is going to provide a recommendation to the GVEA board of directors. And the GVEA board of directors is going to make a decision about this. But I would say we are still in this moment where it is absolutely possible for consumers to be installing and utilizing this technology safely and, doing so in a way that is compliant with, making sure our line workers are safe and the National Electrical Code.

00;05;18;02 - 00;05;31;04 [Amanda Byrd] Phil Wight is an associate professor of history and Arctic Northern Studies at 日韩无码. And I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.