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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife's off-grid lodge operators are saying good riddance to their diesel generators, and seeing the light with solar power.

Gordon Gin of Yellow Dog Lodge installs solar panels to the roof of the lodge's workshop and generator building in 2010. - photo courtesy Yellow Dog Lodge

Before installing a solar photovoltaic (PV) system at Yellow Dog Lodge in 2010, proprietor Gordon Gin relied completely on generated power to operate the lodge, located on Duncan and Graham lakes, about 35 miles northeast of Yellowknife, where there is no road or utility service.

The adverse cost of up to 3,000 litres of fuel per year forced the seasonal lodge to shut down power from midnight til 6 a.m., which did not suit the needs of older fishing clientelle who required sleep apnea machinery and other overnight power needs.

The noise pollution of the generators also disturbed visitors' lodge experience.

"People are coming up to the lodge for pristine environment, and having the hum of the generator in the background takes some of that away," said Gin. "People want to go out and have their coffee in the morning on the deck and hear the loons, or hear the robins singing -- with a generator, you wouldn't hear that."

Mostly paid for through territorial government grants, Gin immediately saw a return on the roughly $45,000 investment for the 14-panel, 2,570-watt capacity solar PV system, which drastically cut down the cost of flying barrels of fuel in to power the lodge to about $500 a year, from $5,000 a year.

The capital expansion is also garnering the attention of environmentally-conscious tourists, from "greener" states such as California, Gin added.

"I'm pulling in people from Sacramento (Calif.) solely because we're more environmentally-friendly and greener than say we were five years ago," he said. "It's a win win win all the way around because it reduced my operating costs, it essentially brought in more environmentally-conscious travellers, and it lessens the impact to the environment. So it's a triple-win scenario."

Yellow Dog is not the only lodge reaping the benefits of alternative energy, with photovoltaic systems also installed at Blachford Lake Lodge conference resort and fishing lodge, and Enodah Trout Rock Lodge.

"Best thing I ever did!" exclaimed Enodah president Ragnar Wesstrom, on the decision three years ago to install the solar panel system at the Great Slave Lake trophy pike fishing, game and winter adventure lodge. "Saving the environment and burning much less fossil fuel."

Negative feasibility studies on solar power in the North have pointed to the lack of sunlight, for most of the year, leaving off-grid solar enthusiasts to augment their PV systems with fossil fuels, or wind turbines -- which can also face challenges with the harsh winter on the rotating equipment.

The "swish swish swish" of the blades also make wind systems not completely soundless, Gin added.

Due to the quiet alternative solar power, Gin is reporting more wildlife coming into the Yellow Dog camp, which might have been missed before due to the drone of the generators.

In addition, because the lodge is totally off the power grid, the self-contained, underground system boasts zero power failures, Gin said, except for when the batteries run out, which takes him five minutes to get power back up and running again.

"I have less outages than you guys do in Yellowknife," Gin joked. "I don't have ravens pulling down power lines."

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