Jason Unrau
Northern News Services

Inuvik (July 15/05) - Last week the Drum reported that a new study in wind generated electricity was underway through the Aurora Research Institute in Inuvik.

Data for the study, garnered from wind monitoring stations in Inuvik, Sachs Harbour, Holman and Paulatuk, will be used to determine the most suitable locations to set up permanent turbines in the event the technology is employed.

A one kilowatt demonstration wind turbine was erected at the Aurora Research Institute at the end of June.

As for the technology itself, a turbine project in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut has already proven its worth. The study was conducted in partnership between what is now the Nunavut Power Corporation (formerly part of the Northwest Territories Power Corp.) and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.

Despite the harsh Northern climate and the remote location of Rankin Inlet, its $300,000, 50 kW turbine generated 189,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year since November 2000. As it displaces approximately 40,000 litres of diesel fuel annually, its usage reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 185 tonnes a year.

While all this may sound promising for the advent of similar projects in the NWT, the Rankin Inlet turbine was not without its problems.

Before it was installed, a good portion of the wiring and controls had to be replaced with more durable parts to withstand the high winds and cold temperatures of the Kivalliq region.

Other turbines that were part of the same experiment - situated in Sachs Harbour, Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay - were not modified and therefore did not fare as well.

Lightening struck one down, another was blown over by high winds and a third was decommissioned because, "it wasn't working," according to Northwest Territories Power Corp. president Leon Courneya.

Adapting the turbines and actually getting the equipment to far flung, isolated communities is part of what makes the cost of employing the turbines much higher in the North.

J.P. Pinard, consultant with the ARI for the wind monitoring project estimates that it costs, "around $1,000 per kilowatt so a 500 kilowatt turbine is about $500,000, but up here it's about four times that."

That estimate is actually somewhat cheaper than Rankin Inlet's 50 kW turbine, whose $300,000 startup cost worked out to $6,000 per kilowatt. This doesn't include the $10,000 worth of maintenance and upkeep the machine requires each season.

But oil prices continue to rise and already the cost of shipping diesel to Delta communities reliant on the fuel to generate electricity has increased 57 per cent since March 2000. In that year, getting fuel to the delta region cost 43.45 cents per litre. In 2005, that same litre cost 68.14 cents.

Regardless, Pinard says the key to making the technology viable is on the ground support. "It's going to take somebody in each community to champion this," he said.

"The one in Rankin Inlet was successful because they had a person there who was interested in making it work."

That person was Philip Owens, an electrician who worked for Nunavut Power Corp. until 2003. Prior to his departure, Owens credited dedicated operations staff at the power corp's Rankin Inlet location with the turbine's success.

Mike Yarema, Power Corp. operations supervisor for Rankin Inlet, reported the community's turbine had been out of service for the last six months because tip breaks - devices that slow the blades down in high winds - were stuck open.

"But we've got the parts and hope to have it back up running in a month or two," Yarema said, explaining that he was short staffed and had to focus his manpower on other work.

"But it's a shame that we don't have more of these (turbines), because they save a lot of fuel."