SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - As the NWT government prepares to review its strategy for cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions, communities across the territory are trying to find ways to generate their own power, heat and fuel.

Nina Firth-Larsson, owner of Yellowknife-based Energy North, believes co-generation of electricity and heat is the way of the future for Northern communities. - photo courtesy of Nina Firth-Larsson NWT Power savings The Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) cut its emissions to 54 per cent of 1990-1991 levels, largely by using more natural gas than diesel fuel. It produced 64,098 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in 2008-09 and achieved Gold Champion Level Reporting Status with the Canadian Greenhouse Gas Challenge Registry. All of NTPC's sites are now heated with residual heat. Colville Lake's plant was the last to be switched over from electricity in 2000-02, resulting in a decrease of about 50 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions between 2000-01 and 2008-09.

While less than one per cent of Canada's total greenhouse gas emissions are generated in the NWT, the territory was also one of two jurisdictions to see an increase in industry emissions from 2007-2008, according to Environment Canada. Yet the NWT still has no territorial target for emissions reduction.

In late January, less than two months after a group of territorial politicians returned from the United Nations' conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark, the GNWT earmarked $60 million of its budget for energy efficiency projects. Of that money, $15 million is dedicated to "reducing the NWT's reliance on diesel fuel, the cost of living and the NWT's greenhouse gas emissions," while the remaining funds are to be spread over the next four years.

This investment - plus an additional $10.8 million for energy development "to reduce NWT reliance on fossil fuels" - aims to combat harmful emissions that contribute to global warming. The GNWT's target, as stated in its Greenhouse Gas Strategy for 2007-2011, is to reduce emissions from government facilities by 10 per cent below 2001 levels.

In an interview with News/North a few weeks before he flew to Copenhagen in December 2009, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger said the GNWT would not only surpass its goals, but would lead other governments by example.

"We want to hold up the work we're doing as an example," Miltenberger said. The territorial government can't wait, he said, for "the federal government to catch up."

"We're actually doing things," the minister said. "We're on the ground putting our money to work to cut our greenhouse gas emissions and our carbon footprint."

A look at Environment Canada data over seven years suggests the government has done just that. The total greenhouse gas emissions reported in the territory in 2008 were 534 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents, down from about 1,750 in 2001. But the 2008 Environment Canada data - the most current since the NWT's strategy was released - is comprised of emissions reports from only three companies - Diavik Diamond Mines in Lac De Gras, BHP Billiton Diamonds Inc. in Yellowknife and Imperial Oil Resources in Norman Wells - and does not include emissions levels from government-run buildings and services, the only ones for which the GNWT has established an official target.

Next year the government plans to renew and update its strategy, but in the meantime NWT communities are taking action to increase their energy efficiency and reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.

Several small, remote communities across the territory, particularly in the Deh Cho and Beaufort-Delta regions, are considering switching to alternative forms of energy generation such as residual heating systems, wood pellet boilers and wind turbines.

Whati, Fort McPherson and Inuvik already heat buildings near local power plants with residual heat. Similar systems are in the planning stages in places such as Tsiigehtchic, Fort Simpson and Fort Liard.

Leon Courneya, president and CEO of the Northwest Territories Power Corporation, said the company lobbied the GNWT to provide more residual heat funding for communities.

"It's a proven technology," Courneya said. "It works well. It's really just a matter of cost." Although distributing "leftover" heat from power plants to nearby buildings results in dramatic energy savings for the community, such systems cost upwards of $1 million to install, and Courneya said "from a financial point of view it has not been a success, though we're starting to see some improvement" in Fort McPherson, where the project was paid for without any GNWT funding.

Mackenzie-Delta MLA David Krutko said since communities in that region rely most heavily on diesel fuel to heat homes and transport goods, it's important the government ensures its $60 million for energy efficiency projects is spread evenly across the territory.

"The government has to start looking outwards and allowing some of that (funding) to be spent in places where we have high-cost communities," Krutko said, adding that Northern communities should look more seriously at biomass and wood pellets as a means of heating their homes. "We have been using wood products for hundreds of years to heat our homes and I think that's something that we have to continue to build on," he said, calling it a "great business opportunity."

Nina Firth-Larsson agrees. The Yellowknife-based owner of Energy North, a manufacturer of wood pellet burners, furnaces and biomass cogeneration tools, spent six years in France and Sweden before moving to the capital three years ago. She noticed many energy-efficient practices in Europe, which she said can be used commercially in NWT. Many remote communities in Sweden, for example, rely on cogeneration plants that provide both heat and electricity. Now, her company is working with many NWT communities on feasibility studies for cogeneration heating and electricity in municipal buildings.

"Not only does it reduce gas emissions, but it also reduces the price of electricity, the price of heat and most importantly it creates jobs," she said. "It's already good that the government is trying to go into green energy and putting forward a strategy to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions but we have lots of work to do."

One of the most effective ways the GNWT can help reduce emissions across the territory, Firth-Larsson believes, is to offer more financial incentives for businesses and residents to switch to energy-saving products.

"It is an investment and we know the economy is not the best, so if we push the consumer to buy these types of products, then I think people will of course want to turn to green energies," she said.