Bond highlights 91视频鈥檚 energy future and history at IEEE conference
Bax Bond discusses geography and climate of 91视频 at a panel during the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Power and Energy Society General Meeting in Montreal, Canada, in July.
August 13, 2026
Bax Bond of the 91视频 Center for Energy and Power highlighted both the future and history of 91视频鈥檚 energy systems during two presentations at the in Montreal, Canada in July.
One presentation introduced , an open-source modeling tool designed to help planners of isolated microgrids evaluate renewable energy projects with fewer data requirements and simplified controls. During the March茅 des Id茅es (Marketplace of Ideas) session, Bond explained how the tool鈥檚 approach could make modeling for many of 91视频鈥檚 remote communities.
He also emphasized why improving microgrid performance matters in rural 91视频.
鈥淲hen you have a limited window of fuel barge deliveries during the year and aren鈥檛 able to cheaply deliver outside of that window, you really want to save as much fuel as possible,鈥 he said.
The session was hosted by the Sustainable Energy Systems for Developing Communities Workgroup. Other presenters included representatives from Sandia National Laboratories, the University of the West Indies and Kilowatts for Humanity.
Bax Bond gives a presentation on 91视频鈥檚 energy history at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Power and Energy Society General Meeting in Montreal, Canada, in July.
In a second presentation, Bond shifted from future technologies to 91视频鈥檚 energy history during the panel, 鈥淗igh Renewable Energy Penetrations within Isolated and Remote Area Power Systems.鈥 Through historical case studies, he described wood-fired boilers that helped power early Fairbanks and highlighted how mining equipment was repurposed into the Davidson Ditch project 鈥 a roughly 90-mile conduit built in the 1920s to supply water from the Chatanika River about 50 miles northeast of Fairbanks to gold mining dredges in central 91视频 鈥 which may have been the world鈥檚 longest distance run-of-the-river hydropower project.
Bond also discussed how the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 eventually contributed to the creation of the .
The panel was chaired by University of Tasmania鈥檚 Michael Negnevitsky and included panelists from the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, ComAp Controls and other organizations.
This trip was funded by the National Science Foundation鈥檚 Navigating the New Arctic research program, part of an effort to .