Delegates from the Bering Strait region and representatives from government, scientific and commercial groups met last week for the Bering Strait Regional Energy Summit, hosted by Kawerak, at the Mini Convention Center.
Regional and tribal stakeholders discussed energy infrastructure and learned about projects happening in the region.
Attendees at the conference collaborated in an hours-long session to come up with a list of regional energy priorities.
Their first priority was resilience, followed by cost reduction and collaboration. Attendees also emphasized financing energy, education for locals about the energy industry, transportation, housing and prioritizing mechanical operation and maintenance jobs.
The main through line during the discussion was cost – how to get it down, fund energy projects and keep things affordable for locals.

Bulk fuel purchasing
During a bulk fuel round table discussion, it was clear that attendees were also concerned with rising fuel costs due to the war with Iran.
Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation Chief Operating Officer Tyler Rhodes explained how NSEDC’s bulk fuel purchasing program enables the member communities to get a better deal on fuel by buying together in bulk as a collective. Rhodes warned the audience that fuel prices were going to increase. Rhodes warned the audience that fuel prices were going to increase. “At this point, we are looking at almost a $2 increase before taxes on the diesel and $1.44 increase on the unleaded fuel over what we paid last year,” he said. “That’s going to change just depending on what fuel prices do between now and the end of the month, but I think we’re all right to be discussing and bracing for what’s coming down the line.”
Matthew Wirth with Bering Strait School District said that with costs rising, heating fuel is their number one priority for next year’s budget. “We’re just trying to do everything to proactively and make sure the buildings are warm in order to get students in,” he said.  
Rhodes said that there is not much to be done except to watch prices and try and plan for increased costs. “I think there’s going to be a collaboration needed to figure out how best to get through,” he said.
Renewable energy
Other presenters at the conference talked about how investing in renewable energy had helped stave off fuel costs.
Deilah Johnson from the Village of Solomon gave attendees at the conference an overview on the tribe’s solar energy projects. Johnson noted to the conference attendees that the process isn’t just applying for a grant and then buying solar panels. “There’s so much more than that. It’s the understanding where to start, how to get your plans done, and how to get funding resources, and then how to manage that grant,” she said. 
One of Solomon’s main energy projects is located at the roadhouse at the Village of Solomon. She explained that since Solomon isn’t connected to a larger energy grid, their “grid” is the diesel generator at the site. The generator kicks on for power generation when the batteries powered by solar panels run low. “When the batteries are down to 15 percent left, then that sends a signal to our generator to kick on and recharge the batteries,” she said. “We cannot rely on solar only for electricity and to feed all of our demand because, especially in the winter, our sun production is not capable of providing that demand.”
Johnson told attendees that figuring out how to best implement solar takes a lot of preparation work. “There’s so much planning that goes into designing a system that’s going to meet your demand need and then understanding exactly what time of the year you’re going to have the best production on what part of the roof,” she said. 
Thomas Simonsson pitched his idea for wood burning stoves fueled by driftwood as a heating alternative in the region. He himself purchased a wood stove and collects wood on the beach. It is now his house’s primary heating source in the winter. “I got my fuel bill and cut it by 40 to 50 percent per month. That’s a lot of money saved,” he said.
Kelsey Galleher, the general manager at Unaatuq, the consortium that owns Pilgrim Hot Springs, gave the conference an update on the site’s geothermal energy project. Testing revealed that Unaatuq has a sizable geothermal resource, she said. “Since 2020 and as recently as 2024, resource monitoring has taken place in the form of well flow testing, reinjection and temperature testing, to better understand the natural state of the resource at Pilgrim and how it can support development,” she said. 
The planned geothermal plant will allow Unaatuq to heat the buildings onsite and the water used will be replenished back into the reservoir. Galleher said that this renewable resource comes with many benefits. “We’ll save a ton of money on diesel and propane. Currently we have solar panels in most of our facilities, but they’re not always reliable on a particularly cloudy day,” she said. “A reliable energy source will also allow agricultural expansion, including building a large greenhouse, which will significantly increase the growing season.”

Grid resilience programs stalled
Joni Yakunin, White Mountain’s acting city clerk, detailed how she applied on behalf of the Native Village of White Mountain and the City of White Mountain for federal grid resilience funding after the generators at the power plant in the community were found to be operating past their life cycle, were no longer working or were operating with major issues. After the 2025 presidential inauguration, Yakunin stopped hearing from the Department of Energy. She heard that cuts to the workforce prevented the DoE from getting to grid resilience funding applications. “Whatever applications they were receiving, [they] had so little employees that they had no time to deal with all the applications,” she said. 
Eventually, the upgrades to the power plant were funded out of pocket in the hopes of federal reimbursement. The power plant is now stabilized and operational. “We have two upgraded generators now online, and we have two certified operators, and the stability has improved,” she said. “There are some outages, but the kinks are being sorted.”
Attendees at the conference also had the opportunity to tour Nome’s power plant. They got to check out the Battery Energy Storage System, or BESS for short, were able to take a look at the generators inside the buildings and were educated on how NJUS operates and sustains power in the city. 
Representatives from regional villages were particularly interested in the BESS. Ken Morton with NJUS explained how the wind turbines in Nome store up excess energy in the BESS that can be used to cushion the load when the wind cuts out and the generators in the plant have to ramp up energy production.

AVEC news 
Chris Wolpert from the Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, or AVEC for short, gave updates on some of their projects. AVEC installed electric boilers at the power plant in Stebbins and the water treatment plan in St. Michael and use extra power from the wind turbine for heating.  “Any excess electricity that comes off the turbine powers those electric boilers and provides heat to the power plant in Stebbins,” he said. “We provide heat to the City of Stebbins offices, and then we provide augmented heat to the water treatment plant in St. Michael.”
 

Dustin Madden from Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium told the audience about some of the ways ANTHC is helping bring down the cost of operating water and sewer systems by increasing energy efficiency. ANTHC will work with communities to develop renewable energy assets that can be used to offset the cost of water bills. “We found that about 40 percent of the cost of operating water and sewer systems is energy, and that’s really the one place that we can bring those costs down,” he said.
The conference was capped off by a performance from the Nome-King Island Dancers Wednesday afternoon.