Powering the North

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NEW TECHNOLOGIES AND SUPPORT FOR TRADITIONAL LIFE

[mk_dropcaps style=”simple-style”]S[/mk_dropcaps]OMETIMES, SMALL STEPS toward an energy future can be as significant as large ones. Take the case of Kugaaruk, an Inuit hamlet of about 700 on Nunavut’s central Arctic coast. Once a traditional Inuit fishing camp, Kugaaruk is perhaps best known for its small stone church, constructed by missionaries in the 1940s. Today, local officials are hoping to give the community a new signature structure: a solar-powered community freezer.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”2/3″][mk_image src=”https://energy-exchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/KANE-5930.jpg” image_width=”800″ image_height=”600″ crop=”true” lightbox=”false” frame_style=”simple” target=”_self” title=”Colville Lake, N.W.T., located about 50 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, is breaking technological ground with a solar array that’s integrated into the local grid.” desc=”PAT KANE” caption_location=”outside-image” align=”left” margin_bottom=”10″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]Community freezers are important features in the North’s remote settlements. Imported food is extremely expensive and, in many cases, considerably less nutritious than the traditional diet. Thus, encouraging people to eat “country foods” — such as caribou, fish and other game — is an important component of health promotion. Community freezers serve this goal by creating space where people can store country food that doesn’t fit in a home freezer. The problem is, they can cost thousands of dollars a month to operate, largely due to the cost of electricity generated by diesel.

Kugaaruk is hoping 
to make the cost of its 
freezer more afford
able. With a federal
 government grant of 
$100,000, the community purchased a
14-kilowatt solar array last year, with plans to install it on top of the local arena. At the moment, however, it’s unclear when the project will be completed. The panels missed the annual sealift last year and are currently in storage in Calgary. There are also regulatory processes to complete with Qulliq Energy, Nunavut’s power company. And so, work continues.[/vc_column_text][mk_blockquote style=”line-style” font_family=”none” text_size=”22″ align=”left”]Local officials are hoping to give Kugaaruk a new signature structure: a solar-powered community freezer.[/mk_blockquote][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]Meanwhile, solar efforts are moving faster in the N.W.T., where the territorial government has been building up capacity. In the past year, the Northwest Territories Power Corp. has completed work on a new project in the settlement of Colville Lake, one of the most expensive communities to power in the territory.

Situated about 50 kilometres above the Arctic Circle northwest of Great Bear Lake, Colville Lake is among the smallest communities in the N.W.T. and one where the traditions of life on the land remain especially strong. At the same time, it is breaking technological ground with the installation of a solar array and battery bank that is now integrated with a new diesel generator to feed the local grid. It’s the first project of its kind in the territory and it’s expected the battery bank will create occasional opportunities to run the community completely on solar power, says NWT Energy’s Stewart. “Integrating the batteries into that system will allow you to bank the sunlight and effectively turn off the diesel at some point in the summer.”

Colville Lake’s residents — all 150 of them — will no doubt appreciate their newly reduced reliance on costly diesel. More than that, they’ll appreciate the greater reliability. The community’s old system was becoming increasingly spotty, with power outages occurring almost weekly. With luck, that will soon be a thing of the past.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][mk_button dimension=”three” size=”large” outline_skin=”dark” outline_active_color=”#fff” outline_hover_color=”#333333″ bg_color=”#13bdd2″ text_color=”light” icon=”moon-next” url=”/powering-the-north/4/” target=”_self” align=”right” fullwidth=”false” margin_top=”0″ margin_bottom=”15″ animation=”scale-up”]Next Page[/mk_button][vc_column_text disable_pattern=”true” align=”left” margin_bottom=”0″]