In these weekly talks, hosted by the Gund Institute for Environment, scholars and leaders exchange ("xChange") new research and solutions for people and planet.

This week, Michelle Wilber, a research engineer at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, University of Alaska Fairbanks and a Macmillan Visiting Scholar, will talk about the University of Alaska's interdisciplinary research partnering with three rural Alaska communities—Kotzebue, Galena, and Bethel—to understand the challenges and potential for electric vehicles (EVs).

As a research engineer and lead of ACEP's Grid Edge Research team, Michelle will present new data on EV energy needs in a variety of use cases and down to -40C. The team is gathering additional data on community vehicle use, electric snow machine performance, electric grid details, and economics to decide when and where a switch to an electric vehicle might be most beneficial for rural Alaskans and other northerners, as well as piloting a community-based EV maintenance intensive.

Michelle Wilber, Research Engineer, leads the Grid Edge Research Group at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Her research focuses on the performance and integration of solar photovoltaic and electrification technologies (such as EVs and heat pumps) in cold climates and microgrids. She holds a BS from the California Institute of Technology and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

For the best experience we recommend attending this event in person, however a Zoom link is available: https://uvm-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_9T2YGJ7cTeiG--8yhB7ntQ