The electric utility for the Anchorage area has approved plans to build what could be largest solar farm in Alaska.

Chugach Electric Association is looking to build up to a 10-megawatt solar farm at its Beluga Power Plant across Cook Inlet west of Anchorage, near the village of Tyonek, chief executive Arthur Miller said in a public meeting this week.

The Beluga Solar Project should be operational in mid-2027, helping offset the utility’s reliance on natural gas, he said.

The plans come after solar and wind projects in Southcentral Alaska have struggled as the administration of President Donald Trump and Republicans have moved to slash funding for renewable energy projects.

The utility’s board last month authorized spending $26.4 million for the project, or $14.7 million for a smaller 5-megawatt option at the site.

The larger project would require an agreement with CIRI, the Alaska Native regional corporation in Anchorage that owns part of the land.

An 8.5-megawatt solar farm in Houston, owned by CleanCapital, is currently the largest in Alaska.

The Beluga solar plans could benefit from a roughly 40% reduction in costs from a tax credit that U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski kept alive for one year in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, after other Republicans had sought to eliminate it.

The Beluga project will try to capture that tax benefit by meeting key deadlines, including beginning construction by July 4, 2026, people working on the project told the Chugach Electric board at its meeting.

“While we would hope to get the tax credits and our goal is to meet the deadline, the project was approved with or without the (tax credit),” said Julie Hasquet, a spokeswoman with Chugach Electric, on Friday.

Miller, speaking a recent community meeting organized by state Rep. Julie Coulombe, R-Anchorage, said the project is important in part because it’s expected to run for 30 years.

Miller said it will help reduce the need for natural gas that the utility largely relies on as an energy source.

A looming shortage of natural gas from Cook Inlet is expected to force Chugach Electric and other utilities to import costly liquefied natural gas in the coming years.

The larger, 10-megawatt option would save 2.8 billion cubic feet in natural gas over its life, Miller said.

That’s a tiny fraction of the utility’s annual consumption of 12 billion cubic feet.

Still, Beluga solar would have important benefits, though it’s not without risk, said Chugach Electric board member Jim Nordlund.

“There’s great value in diversification in itself, in that we’re moving forward and becoming less dependent on natural gas,” Nordlund said at the board meeting.

Chugach Electric expects that Beluga solar would have a “negligible rate impact,” the resolution says.

The utility would seek approval from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to recover costs through electricity rates, the resolution says.

Other renewable projects struggling

The approval for the solar project comes after a much larger solar project on the Kenai Peninsula was canceled earlier this year amid concerns about federal funding cuts. Led by private developers, the farm in Nikiski would have provided 45 megawatts of power.

And Little Mount Susitna Wind, another privately led project proposed for construction across Cook Inlet, appears to be struggling.

That project would have served as an independent power producer providing large amounts of energy into the Alaska Railbelt, of at least 120 megawatts.

Chugach Electric had studied the wind project as a source of energy that the utility could buy, if its built.

But Chugach Electric is no longer “moving forward” with the project, Hasquet said.

“We have requested approval from the IPP (independent power producer) to publicly disclose their proposed pricing and, to date, they have not given us approval to disclose the information,” Hasquet said Friday.

Alaska Renewables founded the project and remains the development partner after selling it to Boston-based Longroad Energy, which would serve as operator.

Julie Estey — with Matanuska Electric Association, which serves the Palmer-Wasilla region — said that Little Mount Susitna Wind “has decided to put active development of project terms on pause.”

“However, our understanding is that some engineering and environmental work on the project have continued,” she said in a text.

The utility “looks forward to continuing discussions about the feasibility of the project when it is appropriate,” she said.

Matt Perkins, with Alaska Renewables, declined to comment on the status of Little Mount Susitna Wind on Friday.

The company has also pursued other wind projects in Alaska, including Shovel Creek Wind outside Fairbanks.

“We continue to invest in projects across the Railbelt,” he said.