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INUVIK
How does a person decrease their utility costs?

The short answer, as provided by the Northern non-profit organization Arctic Energy Alliance, is to reduce the amount of energy consumed. Beyond that, alternative energies can have an impact.

"We exist to help people in the North use less energy and switch to renewable energy sources," said John Carr, a technical specialist in renewable energy and energy efficiency with the Arctic Energy Alliance. "We work with individuals, and businesses, and communities to help them reduce the costs and environmental impact of their energy use."

To help people reach these goals, the AEA offers funding programs to help people put in more efficient heating systems and better insulate and seal their homes and buildings.

Currently, the alliance is working behind the scenes to come up with space heating alternatives for Inuvik.

They are currently looking at working on a study for biomass – material like wood pellets – in Inuvik, said Donald Andre, regional energy project co-ordinator for the Inuvik branch of the AEA.

This study, scheduled to be released by the end of May, will look into replacing oil or gas furnaces with wood pellet boilers, and connecting multiple buildings or district heating systems to boilers that create heat using biomass.

The study is also looking into the cost of supplying wood pellets – an energy source catching on elsewhere in the territory – to the town.

"We're going to come up with a plan to provide as much information as we can to provide the best information that we can," said Andre.

Biomass is essentially wood, or wood products such as pellets, which are made of compressed sawdust.

There are already approximately 10 pellet stoves in Inuvik residences, said Andre.

"The nice thing about the pellet stoves, too, is that you don't have to change your furnace or nothing. It gives you that leeway in terms of time," he said. "And the same goes with the woodstoves."

Pellet stoves and woodstoves help offset heating needs – meaning a residence with a gas furnace would require running its furnace less if the owner installed a woodstove or pellet stove.

In that kind of situation, the actual furnace would act as backup, said Carr.

While there are a variety of factors that affect what energy option is best for each individual case, in general the best short-term heating option is conventional wood, said Carr.

"The most renewable and sustainable option is locally-sourced wood," he said. "That's something that people have used here for thousands of years. It's traditionally been the energy source here in this region, and if the forests are managed properly it can continue to be an energy source for, well, forever."

In September 2009, the AEA published a study through the GNWT titled the NWT Community Wood Pellet Study. It concluded that Inuvik was not a good candidate for wood pellet technology because of its cheap supply of natural gas, although the situation has changed since Ikhil Joint Venture's natural gas reserves are set to dry up within the next two years – almost a decade before its contract was supposed to end. In the wake of this revelation, it now appears Inuvik residents may see their heating bills double this fall.

The projected end of cheap natural gas in Inuvik, at least in the short term, creates an opportunity for local people and businesses who could provide wood or wood pellet stoves, said Andre.

"There's a demand for it like anything else," he said. "I've been talking to people since the meeting ... and there's definitely interest out there for wood pellet stoves and woodstoves."

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