A new TESUP order is on its way to Wasilla, in Alaska’s Matanuska-Susitna Valley. Welcome! Alaska is not the first place most people picture for a home wind turbine, and that is exactly why we wanted to write about it.
The trouble with an Alaskan winter.
In Wasilla, the sun does a lot of work in summer and very little in winter. Using a full year of hourly weather data for 2025, the average solar energy reaching the ground was about 5.1 kWh per square metre per day in June, and about 0.18 in December. That is roughly 28 times less, in exactly the months when a household needs the most light and the most heat.
The wind does the opposite.
The same data tells the other half of the story. Wind near Wasilla averaged 3.0 m/s in December and 2.3 m/s in January, roughly double most summer months. Across the whole year the average is a modest 1.6 m/s, so we are not going to pretend Wasilla is a windy place. What it is, is a place where the wind turns up when the sun leaves, which makes a small turbine a winter partner for solar panels rather than a rival.
These figures come from a weather model grid at 10 metres above the ground, not from a measurement on anyone’s property. A clear, open site with the turbine on a pole can see a different picture, in either direction.
Meet the Matanuska wind.
The direction is where the valley shows its character. When the wind near Wasilla blew at 3 m/s or more, it came from the north-east 48% of the time and from the east another 25%, down the Matanuska and Knik valleys from the mountains. Locals know it as the Matanuska wind, and in winter it can be strong: the same data shows gusts of up to 25.7 m/s at Wasilla and 30.9 m/s at nearby Palmer, with 55 hours of gusts of 20 m/s or more at Wasilla over the year.
Which blades, and when to stop.
A vertical-axis turbine takes wind from any direction, so a valley wind that swings between north-east and east is no problem for the Atlas. For the light, everyday winter wind we would fit the Low-Wind blade set, which starts turning at 2 m/s and is rated up to 20 m/s. On the days when the Matanuska wind gusts beyond that, the right move is to stop the turbine and fit the Atlas protection cover, which locks the blades in place until it passes. For very exposed sites, the High-Wind set is rated to 35 m/s.
We wrote about stopping a turbine before a storm in A typhoon is coming. Here is what to do with your turbine. The Matanuska wind is not a typhoon, but the rule is the same: when the forecast is beyond what the blades are rated for, the right output is zero.
Solar for the long summer days. Wind for the long winter nights.
About 29 cents a kilowatt-hour.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, Alaska households paid an average of 28.8 cents per kWh in July 2026, against a US average of 18.3 cents. Every kilowatt-hour a turbine makes on a dark, breezy winter evening is one that does not have to be bought.
So: hello, Wasilla, and welcome to TESUP. If you live in the Mat-Su Valley and want to know what your own site could do, the Atlas vertical wind turbine page lists all three blade sets with their wind ranges.
Wind, gusts and solar radiation: ERA5 hourly reanalysis for 2025 via Open-Meteo, grid points near Wasilla (61.58°N, 149.44°W) and Palmer (61.60°N, 149.11°W). Electricity prices: US Energy Information Administration, average residential retail price, July 2026. Hero photo: Pioneer Peak on a winter evening near Palmer, Cecil Sanders, CC BY 2.0. We have not named our customer or their address.