SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The temporary diesel-fueled street light at the intersection of Ingraham Trail and Hwy. 3 will soon be replaced by regular street lights hooked into the existing power grid.

This portable lighting unit is expected to cost the GNWT Department of Transportation close to $10,000 to rent and fuel between Jan. 29 and the end of this month when it comes down. - Walter Strong/NNSL photo

Seventeen new lamp posts will be installed, which use either conventional or LED lamps. But lighting the intersection this past winter was not cheap. Assistant GNWT director of planning, policy and communications, Patricia Russell, provided Yellowknifer with numbers.

It cost about $125 per day to rent and fuel the diesel generator-powered portable lamp post. By the time the off switch is flicked at the end of this month, it will have cost approximately $9,500 to light the intersection. Emissions from the unit were not tracked.

There is a greener alternative being tested and results look promising.

Polar Tech Recreation installed a 10-metre tall lamp post in its yard earlier this year that runs on wind and solar power alone. It's powered by a 400-watt wind turbine and two 90-watt solar panels, keeping two truck-sized batteries charged at the base of the pole.

"We put the light standard up two months ago and walked away," said company president Gord Olson. "There are no bills, no maintenance, zero. It's working better than we hoped."

Polar Tech is the sole Canadian distributor for the Chinese manufactured systems. The tower can be supplied and deployed anywhere in Yellowknife for around $11,000, depending on site variables.

According to Olson, it only takes two hours of sunlight to fully recharge the batteries after a night of lamp use. Those two hours of sunshine are only needed if there's no wind.

"If there's been a wind, then the batteries are still at full charge in the morning," Olson said.

The unit can be deployed in many formats, including portable applications. The pole can be fitted with a hydraulic arm capable of raising and lowering the post, fully equipped with the leveraged weight of wind turbine and solar panels.

It can also be deployed in three metre pole sections for additional portability.

Could something like this have been set up at the Ingraham Trail intersection?

"In a heartbeat," said Olson. "It's a good location because there's a perfect wind tunnel with the blasted out rock. And you've got a south facing side where the solar panels would definitely catch the sun for eight hours a day."

The unit in Polar Tech's yard powers two 40 watt LEDs. The lighting is similar, Olson said, to the ones the city is considering under its LED streetlight retrofit program with Northland Utilities.

Eric Doig, Polar Tech's clean energy division manager, said they offered to setup and loan a unit to the Department of Transportation for a trial run, but they didn't hear back on the offer.

Without commenting specifically on Polar Tech's offer, the Department of Transportation is not convinced the technology is ready for commercial application.

"Although wind-powered lighting for domestic and recreational use is available on the market, similar technology has not been adapted or used for streetlights," Russell said.

"The department has examined the use of wind power for ferry and highway camps in remote locations," Russell said. "At the time, it was concluded that wind power was not as reliable or affordable as an alternate source of energy because the technology was still under development and its cost was prohibitive."

The GNWT may not be convinced at the moment, but Doig said Polar Tech has been getting much residential and commercial interest.

"Mining camps are very interested," Doig said.

"Some winter-roads camps, I've been told, spend up to $6 million in a season just to maintain power. I can put together a system at a third of their operational dollars, and take them down to 80 per cent of their budget on diesel fuel."

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