Modeling the future of Alaska鈥檚 EV charging station infrastructure

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Photo courtesy of Ashton Curry
Ashton Curry, far right, biking the Johnson Pass in Alaska.

August 24, 2023

This article is part of a series highlighting ACEP鈥檚 2023 cohort of eighteen undergraduate interns. To read about other projects and learn more about the program, please visit the .

As ACEP鈥檚 intern this summer, Ashton Curry worked on a web map project aimed at optimizing theoretical plots of electric vehicle (commonly shortened to EV) charging stations along Alaska road systems, leveraging the vehicle ranges for the best placements. The project also incorporated considerations for regional temperature effects on EV range and battery degradation.

Understanding the needed infrastructure to support a transition to EVs, which could be powered by alternative energy sources such as wind and solar, will be a key part in enabling people to invest in changing over to EVs. Alaska has a unique road system, which makes it particularly challenging to get a fully EV-supported road system.

Curry learned a lot from Michelle Wilber, his mentor in this endeavor, 鈥減articularly how to approach getting large data sets and presenting them in an engaging manner.鈥

Growing up in Anchorage, Alaska, Curry earned his undergraduate degrees in biology and natural science from University of Alaska Anchorage, and is presently pursuing his third degree in computer science also at UAA. Throughout his internship, he enjoyed the opportunity to apply what he learned in school to try to make a positive impact on his community.

鈥淥ne thing that has changed my perspective since the beginning of the summer is that there are a lot more people who are interested in alternative energy than I thought, and their passion for changing Alaska鈥檚 reliance on fossil fuels is inspiring,鈥 Curry said.

This project aims to eventually lead to applying a theoretical model for charging station infrastructure anywhere in the world.

This internship is funded by the through the program. View the final presentation for this project on . For more information on this project, please contact Michelle Wilber at mmwilber@alaska.edu.