This Nunavut community will soon flip the switch on a solar transition

The Ikayuut Solar and Energy Storage Project is expected to supply enough electricity to power about 130 homes in the hamlet of Naujaat, Nunavut during the summer months.

The pervasive, rattling buzz of diesel generators is a daily feature of the Arctic landscape. Especially in the remote communities that pepper the vast tundra of Nunavut. 

That’s because the territory holds the dubious distinction of being one of the few places in Canada that still relies, almost exclusively, on imported fossil fuels. 

But the needle is moving, ever so slightly, as more and more Nunavummiut look to solar energy to offset their diesel use, emissions and costs — including the first solar project in Nunavut's history big enough to power large parts of a community.

The Inuit hamlet of Naujaat sits right on the Arctic circle, facing the icy shores of Hudson’s Bay in Nunavut's northern Kivalliq Region. Home to around one thousand people, Naujaat is about to flip the switch on 2,500 solar panels — enough to power 130 homes, or about 60 per cent of the hamlet. 

By next spring, Naujaat residents are expected to be able to ditch diesel generator sets — for the summer months at least — and power parts of their community on solar energy alone. Blaine Chislett is preparing a ‘Coming of the Light’ ceremony to mark the solar project’s debut.

He says below the constant hum of generators, there’s a serene silence that he’s excited to hear.

“Our current generations will be able to hear the silence that our ancestors once did back when they were nomadic people,” said Chislett, the manager of energy and sustainability at the Inuit-owned Sakku Investments Corporation.

“To have that silence, to touch back into our ancestry, to feel what they felt, back a millennia ago…. It just gives me tingles.” 

Chislett spearheads renewable projects in northern communities, and he’s heavily involved in the Naujaat project, which the hamlet council named the Ikayuut Solar and Energy Storage Project. Ikayuut means “help” in Inuktitut.

Project planners say Ikayuut will help the community reduce its diesel consumption by 30 per cent, or 400,000 litres per year, and cut carbon dioxide emissions by about 30,000 tonnes over the next 30 years.

Chislett says the thought of normalizing solar power for younger generations of Inuit gives him “goosebumps.”

But the project also keeps him and his team up at night. He says they feel the pressure to get this first one right, to show people it can work reliably.
 

Homeowners in Nunavut can apply for rebates to finance the cost of installing residential solar systems, like the one used on this cabin in Rankin Inlet.

With up to 24 hours of daylight in the summer, seasonal, solar-powered electricity may seem like a slam dunk in the North.

However, energy in Nunavut is tricky, said Martha Lenio, the president of the Arctic Renewables Society, based in Iqlauit, and the system has been hard to change. In part because the harsh climate makes reliability the No. 1 priority for the utility, and diesel has long been the most reliable option. 

Lenio explains that the territory runs on 25 closed microgrids, many of which were built in the 1970s and already well past their lifespan. That’s made the utility provider hesitant to integrate new technology into these aging and precarious grids.   

But now is a hopeful time for advocates of wind and solar energy in the north, according to Lenio, and she says the new projects are creating jobs.

“It's starting to get there," she added, "but it's been hard.”

Lenio, who also sits on the board of Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC), Nunavut’s sole utility provider, says there were no renewable energy policies in place when she first began working in Nunavut in 2016. 

But over the last decade, the territorial government has introduced a series of programs and grants to allow individual homes, cabins or community buildings to install solar panels. And they’ve proven very popular.

“People want to make this transition to renewables. They care about the environment, they care about the cost of energy and they want to do the right thing,” said Lenio.

The success of home solar led to the rollout of the Independent Power Producers program in 2019. It allows community-level renewable projects such as the one in Naujaat, developed by Inuit-led companies who meet the technical requirements, to produce wind or solar electricity and sell it to QEC. The electricity then joins the local grid and displaces diesel produced power.

The program has had a rocky start. Capital costs in the north are extremely high, and potential producers have complained for years about a lack of clarity from the government and QEC around the rules and implementation of the program. Chislett and Lenio both hope the momentum of the Ikayuut project can act as a blueprint for how to get renewables up and running on a larger scale in remote communities.

Alongside the moves being made through the IPP, the Government of Nunavut is replacing many of the aging microgrids with newer, smarter systems that create opportunities for renewable energy to be integrated more easily.

And Sakku Investment Corporation is already working toward breaking ground on more community renewable projects. Chislett says he’ll soon turn his sights to Ikayuut‘s sister project, a solar array in Coral Harbour which has just received approval from the hamlet council.

“It’s about time to do something phenomenal and have my ancestors look down on me, like theirs did on them, and give a congratulations,” he said.

— Jennifer Wilson

The web version of this week's newsletter can be found here. Read old issues here. The CBC News climate page is here.

Check out our podcast and radio show. In one of our newest episodes: Climate hasn’t been a hot topic on the campaign trail, but did it come up in the debates? We hear about that from CBC’s Aaron Wherry. Then, we talk climate policy with NDP candidate Samantha Green. And, we hear what the Conservatives have been saying about climate and energy in this election.

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Reader Feedback

We're still hearing from readers about a story on a Quebec community that is making it mandatory for homeowners to have a tree in their front yard to reduce the urban heat island effect in a warming climate, and taxing those who don't plant a tree. 

Monica Graham wrote: "Here in Atlantic Canada, we have had more and higher winds recently. In Hurricane Fiona we lost 28 trees from the ‘house lot,’ and about half the trees from our woodlot. We have big unpopulated spaces here, and large house lots with room to grow fat tall leafy trees. In a town or city with small lots it might be difficult to grow a tree without interfering with overhead utility lines or falling on structures that can't be anywhere else but nearby. It is expensive to prune limbs around power lines, and more so to rebuild a crunched house. If a community mandates trees, which are not shrubs by definition, then it should offer pruning services to avoid other issues as the trees grow and age. I love trees, and continue to plant them, but now I think of 50 years into the future."
 

Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. (And feel free to send photos too!) 

The Big Picture: Breathtaking maps reveal improved air quality in Paris

France’s capital region is breathing better according to a new report by Airparif, the independent group that tracks the air quality in Paris. 

Since 2005, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations have decreased by 50 and 55 per cent respectively. Long-term exposure to NO2 can impair lung function and worsen asthma.

The report attributes the improved air quality to swapping cars and parking lots for bike lanes and greenery, and other policies.

NO2 is primarily produced from fuel burning. Fewer cars on the road means less NO2 in the air. Airparif estimates that 45 per cent of NO2 emissions within the Greater Paris Metropolitan area came from road traffic in 2019.

Instead of driving, the city is encouraging more environmentally friendly travel methods like walking, cycling and using public transit by introducing environmental taxes, expanding cycling networks and increasing parking fees for larger cars. It also created specified zones that reduce traffic and emissions.

To make Paris even more walkable, some streets in the city have been completely closed to cars. In fact, a referendum just last month saw residents electing to close another 500 streets, replacing them with more green infrastructure.

— Hayley Reid-Ginis

Quebec recycler shows what happens to scrap appliances left on the curb

Sylvie D'Aoust drives a loop every week around western Quebec and loads her white pickup truck with other people's trash.

To her, it's all treasure.

She calls herself Recycle Warrior Grl — yes, that's girl without the 'i' — and collects broken appliances from the curb as a way to make quick cash and slow down what gets sent to the landfill.

"[The nickname] is like a play on Wonder Woman: black-brown hair, blue eyes," said D'Aoust, who has both. "[Recycling] is one of those things that I just felt passionate about and there's no hesitation whatsoever."

That's true even when it means getting dirty. Wearing gloves, coveralls, and a coat she recycled, D'Aoust will climb into dumpsters and rummage through garbage bins at local thrift stores that allow clients to take things that were unsold or broken.

"I think it's wonderful, it's great. It's less stuff in the garbage and going in the ground," said André Beauchamp of Trésors de Rupert Treasures, a thrift store where D'Aoust hoisted two stationary bicycles onto her truck.

Scrap metal collecting

It's been less than a year since D'Aoust has been collecting scrap metal.

"I've always been very passionate about recycling and the environment, and this is how I can make a much bigger impact, by offering this service," she said.

The idea came to her last summer while she was talking to a friend about recycling and discovered that Metro Scrap Metal (MSM) in Ottawa gives cash for scrap metal.

Her first order of business was cleaning up her own backyard — a one acre property in Chelsea that was storing an oil tank, dismantled eavestroughs and pieces from a renovation 10 years ago. She then cleared out her recently widowed neighbour's yard and took four truck loads of heavy metal to be recycled.

From there, D'Aoust turned it into a service where in Western Quebec clients can schedule for her to pick up their old appliances for a fee. Recently, her municipality also had changes to their waste collection services.

"So now there's an even greater need to be accessible all the time....You can phone me up and I'll go pick it up," she said.

Selling items to reuse

Any time D'Aoust gets her hands on an appliance, she'll use a magnet to see if it's steel or aluminum. She'll then cut off the cords, which contain valuable copper, and sort the metals and cords by type on her truck's bed and seats.

There's a disclaimer on D'Aoust's booking site that says she has permission to sell or reuse any discarded items. And that could mean it ends up on her eBay store.

"Believe it or not, when you're looking for parts, eBay is where you go to find them," she said.

When clients discard electronics, she'll research if the cables, remotes, or parts are valuable. If they are, she'll upload them.

‘Mining above ground’

Once D'Aoust's truckload is full, she takes her haul to either AIM Recyclage Gatineau or MSM in Ottawa's east end.

There, she'll throw anything made of steel into the scrap yard, which is then hoisted by a large grapple truck and into large trailers. From there, the contents are boxed up and sold to vendors to be recycled.

When customers drop off scrap metal, each material is priced per weight and itemized as either steel, e-waste, batteries, aluminum and copper.

In a video MSM owner Wehbe Wehbe posted on Facebook, he called D'Aoust his "favourite scrapper."

"She's saving the landfill and at the same time, she's bringing it here, and we recycle it, and really, we're mining above ground," he said.

D'Aoust received $120 on a recent haul to MSM, which was enough to cover her gas. She recently expanded her services to include property clean-up and set up a scrap metal drop-off at her home.

— Sannah Choi