Hamlet on power wave of future
Small solar panel pilot project already shows savings
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Saturday, August 13, 2016
KUGLUKTUK/COPPERMINE
A solar energy pilot project begun June 22 in Kugluktuk is already proving successful in creating savings for the community's recreational centre, and council has instructed administrators to develop a green energy plan for the hamlet.
In June, the Hamlet of Kugluktuk installed a 10-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system on the rooftop of the community's recreation centre as a pilot project to see if it could reduce electricity costs. Saving after one month were at $2,000. - DnV Photography/David Ho
|
In the fiscal year 2015-2016, the recreation complex - which houses an almost Olympic-sized ice surface, a youth centre, a community hall, a huge kitchen and a radio station - cost the hamlet $170,000 in electric bills. This figure does not include heating.
"It doesn't matter if it's in the south or here in the North, essential services come first. Water services, roads and recreation is always the last budget item and by the time you've squeezed in all the essentials, recreation usually feels the brunt of any kind of cut. Even if there's extra money to be spent, recreation usually only gets a small portion," said economic development officer Bill Williams.
"So we were looking for solutions to reduce the cost of that facility without affecting programming. And if you start turning off lights it impacts the use of the building. Going with solar panels, generating that extra energy, eliminates that need to cut costs elsewhere," said Williams.
The new solar panels installed across the rooftop of the building, providing 10 kilowatts of power, have already created a $2,000 saving in their first month of operation. The current system can be upgraded to provide up to 50 kilowatts.
"This is real and hard data and shows the potential of solar power in the North," Green Sun Rising's Klaus Dehiring told Nunavut News/North, adding the company also has two solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in Iqaluit from which data is being collected.
Williams says when numbers were presented to council, it decided to move forward on a green energy plan for other hamlet infrastructure.
"Our goal is to continue looking for possible funding and opportunities to continue the solar panels on the recreation complex to keep reducing costs and look at other hamlet facilities that could benefit from the same technology. I think our council realizes the need for not being dependent of diesel and also looking at new ways to bring costs down in the hamlet that doesn't upset the service," he said.
Williams notes that with grant money aimed at improving infrastructure "something good comes out of it," but in the case of the solar power installation, the improvement continues to generate benefits.
For example, the $90,000 investment into the pilot project, over 20 years, goes a lot further than a one-time improvement.
With the current system, the hamlet will see up to $10,000 in saving. But the hope is to grow the system to run the recreation centre on solar alone.
"It's feasible," said Williams.
But what about the winter, when there is less sunlight?
Though there are only 52 minutes of daylight on average in the Month of December, Kugluktuk sees 1,821 hours of sunlight per years, as compared to 2,396 in Calgary. And as Williams explains, the Northern sun is more intense and so produces more power.
"It's a lot higher than was expected, actually," he said.
"And the power corporation, I've been told, within the next year is supposed to be coming up with what's called a net metering process, where they buy back any excess power. So if we were generating more than the building can use at any given time they would buy back at a set rate.
"Our hope is, because we're ahead of the curve, we can over-generate in the summer months and sell that back to the grid and that will offset costs elsewhere without using diesel. But we're ahead of that at this point."
Williams says Nunavut is the only jurisdiction without such a system.
There is also the possibility of storing energy in battery packs.
Another option for reducing diesel in the North is wind power, said Williams. As he notes, Diavik Diamond Mine Inc. to the south of Kugluktuk has proven it can be done with its four-turbine wind farm at the Lac de Gras mine site.
According to the company's latest sustainable development report, the wind farm offset 5.2 million litres of diesel in 2015 and produced 11.2 per cent of the mine's power, with $6 million in fuel savings.
