Juneau, Alaska – The Alaska Municipal League (AML) continues to work at the forefront of supporting Alaska communities to address their infrastructure needs. As part of this effort, AML has been working to provide improved emissions data analysis and visualization that will empower communities to respond to federal funding opportunities, leading to greater energy affordability and resilience.
AML is working with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to complete the Priority Sustainable Energy Action Plan (PSEAP) which will serve as Alaska’s Priority Climate Action Plan (PCAP) for the EPA’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program. As part of this plan, AML and Constellation Energy have collaborated to provide a greenhouse gas and criteria pollutants emissions inventory map tool through Constellation Navigator’s carbon accounting platform, which not only provides baseline emissions data for 2022, but also can help communities set and meet their energy and air quality goals.
Alaska has unique geography and infrastructure that often precludes it from the applicability of national modeling tools. Working with Constellation Navigator, AML intends to make granular greenhouse gas emissions data available for rural communities, largely for the first time. When this work is complete, it will include 245 community and borough-level breakdowns of data source, methodology and estimates, as well as an online geospatial dashboard and modeling tool for each community to access and update. This tool will allow communities to see modelled sectoral and community-level greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions estimates of greenhouse gas and criteria pollutants.
Constellation Navigator’s inventory map tool was informed by federal and state datasets, in addition to local data contributions. Developing the community emission inventory data into usable community and asset-level data visualization and calculation will allow rural Alaska communities to see their emission baseline. Communities will also be able to model the impacts of mitigation projects working with tools developed by experts from Constellation’s sustainability advisory team. The development of these community-level inventories and mitigation modelling tools are being completed with feedback from tribal CPRG grantees. Following an initial simplified inventory the map tool will continually be updated with additional emissions sectors and additional community-level data in preparation for the state’s Comprehensive Sustainable Energy Action Plan (CSEAP).
Project Background
Constellation Navigator is a new platform that utilizes advanced technology and expert advisory services in energy management, data and analytics, carbon accounting, and sustainability to develop an emissions baseline. This platform will enable communities to obtain specific technical support in the form of EPA SIT methodology compliant state-wide GHG emissions calculator. A geospatial dashboard and modeling tool will also be available on the platform for each community to access and explore modeled emissions. This software supports AML and partners to efficiently conduct community, regional, and statewide inventory for greenhouse gas and criteria air pollutants in a scalable manner.
As the platform continues to evolve, there will be further community level breakdowns of data source, methodology and estimates, as well as an online geospatial dashboard and modeling tool for each community to access and update.