**Title**: Energy in the North - Declan Goldhawk
**Date**: August 26, 2026
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Declan Goldhawk


00;00;00;06 - 00;00;18;28 [Declan Goldhawk] Looking at the volcanoes in the area, Mount Spur, Mount Augustine. Or just drilling new wells into, like, around Anchorage and just kind of seeing if all of the homes in Anchorage.

00;00;18;28 - 00;00;42;27 [Amanda Byrdd] This week on energy and the North, I speak with Declan Goldhawk, a summer intern with the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for undergraduates program. Declan, originally from Buffalo, New York, is going into his sophomore year at Pennsylvania State University as an earth science and policy major. I began the conversation with Declan by asking how he decided to come to Alaska for his internship.

00;00;42;27 - 00;01;07;22 [Declan Goldhawk] So when I saw this internship here at ACEP where it was geothermal energy specifically, I saw, oh, the that geothermal part, that kind of goes towards that earth science part. And then the humanities part comes in when you're applying that energy towards the communities of Alaska. And that honestly, it seemed perfect. The only thing that was really surprising to me was that it was that was loads of miles away from home.

00;01;07;22 - 00;01;25;13 [Amanda Byrd] You're an intern with the Research Experiences for uUndergraduates program, which is an opportunity to give people who have not really done research projects, an actual research project to do. And your mentor is Magnus de Witt?

00;01;25;13 - 00;02;08;26 [Declan Goldhawk] He has a great experience, especially from the University of Reykjavik, is where he did his PhD. So I've always wanted to go to Iceland, but they have these amazing geothermal wells and this district heating system in Iceland, which is pretty much exactly what my project is looking at. So he has this great experience of living around the technologies that we'd like to apply to Alaska in my research project. So it's been really fun to kind of take the assumptions that I get as I'm doing this literature review and as I'm finding out about these concepts and ask him about it and then find out what it's been like living next to it, to kind of have that community aspect versus just the words on the paper.

00;02;08;26 - 00;02;13;18 [Amanda Byrd] So your project is looking at low temperature geothermal in Alaska.

00;02;13;18 - 00;03;07;10 [Declan Goldhawk] I'm looking specifically at Anchorage, Alaska. Because of the high population, it's the largest city in the state. Of course, they've been facing the Cook Inlet natural gas crisis, for a couple of years now, and it's looking to get much worse, I believe. And so a lot of what I'm looking at is taking this geothermal energy concept and applying, like, is this feasible to implement into Anchorage both economically and technologically, if you will. So I'm looking at ground source heat pumps. I'm looking at transforming old oil and gas wells into geothermal heat pumps. Looking at the volcanoes in the area, Mount Spur, Mount Augustine. Or just drilling new wells into, like, around Anchorage and just kind of seeing if all of these technologies will help alleviate the amount of electricity needed and natural gas needed to heat the homes in Anchorage.

00;03;07;10 - 00;03;18;15 [Declan Goldhawk] So when you say using old oil or gas wells, I'm thinking those are in Cook Inlet in the under the ocean. Is that are there some on land as well?

00;03;18;15 - 00;03;56;12 [Amanda Byrd] There are. So when I was looking through like the maps and finding all of the wells that are there, I thought, oh, this is great. There's so many wells, most of them are in the water, but there are some especially over by Kenai and Soldotna, I believe. But there are a lot of wells that can be utilized without dealing with the issues that having this crazy tides and ice like sea ice. But the issue is they are far away from Anchorage, so we would have to build these kind of transmission lines and implement a district heating system into Anchorage in order to use these oil and gas wells that are onshore.

00;03;56;12 - 00;04;02;06 [Amanda Byrd] So you're one of 12 interns in this internship, and it's a cohort.

00;04;02;06 - 00;05;05;20 [Declan Goldhawk] I think if I was here alone, even with the community, it would have been hard. But, doing the transition with people that are from Alaska, with people that are from the lower 48, that have never been to Alaska, people that have been here before, just kind of making that transition with other people and like sharing the struggle, if you will, has just been really amazing. I love it so much. I'm going to be a second year in college, so I haven't had that much research experience before this. So it's been really a great opportunity to kind of build my research portfolio at ACEP. One of the things that this internship has given me the opportunity to do that I've never done before is honestly just research. I've been a part of a lab before at Penn State, but I wasn't able to do my own research. I was just helping out grad students and other like, seniors with their own projects and theses, but to kind of have control over what direction my research project goes and how I'm going to write at this time, what I want to get out of this project has been so fulfilling, so rewarding. I really appreciate it for giving me this opportunity.

00;05;05;20 - 00;05;09;20 [Amanda Byrd] Declan Goldhawk is a summer intern at the Alaska Center for Energy and Power, and I'm Amanda Byrd, chief Storyteller for ACEP. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep, and follow us on social media.