John Curran
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 3, 2007

PANGNIRTUNG - Leaders in Pangnirtung have been burning the midnight oil trying to come up with alternatives to diesel generated power and their best idea stinks, but in a good way.

"Council has been discussing energy issues a lot lately," said Ron Mongeau, senior administrative officer. "One of the things we're looking at is burning the solid waste from our landfill to generate power."

While the scheme is still very preliminary, he said such a system would put most of the community's garbage - excluding hazardous materials - through a process called plasma incineration.

"It's heated to about 1,800 F," he said. "It would generate power and if we site it properly, we could also heat some of our buildings with the waste heat energy."

While such a plan is a little unconventional, Mongeau is quick to point out that Pangnirtung is already a little different when it comes to dealing with its other kinds of waste.

"We have a sewage treatment plant ... only we and Iqaluit have one of those," he said. "If we can get rid of the sewage lagoon surely we can do without the landfill."

The raw estimates thus far put the cost of commissioning such a facility at about $3.5 million to $4 million with annual operational costs coming in at roughly $500,000.

So far, Mongeau said, community members are interested and supportive.

"Outside the community there are still some people who will need to be educated," he said.

The community of 1,300 isn't stopping at turning waste into juice - it's also considering other alternatives to meet its energy needs, especially wind energy.

"We certainly have an opportunity based on the Canadian Wind Atlas," he said. "Pang has a lot of wind potential."

While there aren't many Northerners talking about burning garbage for power, Mongeau travelled to Tuktoyaktuk last week to attend the Remote Community Wind Energy Conference.

He and roughly 100 other delegates heard about successes in Alaska and Newfoundland using wind power supplemented by diesel generators on calm days.

With a number of companies involved in wind power generation attending the same event, Mongeau's plan was to make contacts that would hopefully lead to some sort of wind monitoring program in Pangnirtung to collect the hard data needed before any turbines could be constructed.

"I think wind was viable once oil went above $60 a barrel," he said.

Mongeau wasn't the only one from Nunavut interested in alternative energy sources.

"We're getting a new power plant in the next two or three years in Cape Dorset," said Paul Kowmageak, who attended the event in Tuktoyaktuk on behalf of the Qulliq Energy Corp.

"One of the things they're looking at is including a couple of wind turbines - that's why the corporation sent me here."