Nunavut community’s solar panels a target for vandalism
But Clyde River’s year-old system continues to produce energy, hamlet said

Workers install solar panels along Clyde River’s community hall in 2016. The panels have since been vandalized, though hamlet staff said the panels are still able to produce energy. (FILE PHOTO)

When a Vancouver-based renewable energy company returned to install panels in Pond Inlet last year, crews opted to put the panels on top of the building, so they would be less of a target for vandalism. (PHOTO COURTESY OF VREC)
It’s been a year since the 27 solar panels installed alongside Clyde River’s community hall began converting sunlight into power.
So just how much power has the new technology produced in the Baffin community? No one can say for sure.
As part of a pilot project funded by Greenpeace, Vancouver Renewable Energy Cooperative (VREC) helped install the panels along the hamlet’s hall in late 2016.
But soon after the installation, a number of the panels were vandalized. Community members said youth have thrown rocks and ice at the panels, some of which, hung vertically along the side of the building, have cracked.
The RCMP in Clyde River said the panels are vandalized on a regular basis, although those incidents have never been reported to or investigated by police.
But the hamlet’s director of finance, Jonathan Palluq, says all 27 panels are still in good working condition.
“Once they crack, there’s no way to fix them,” he said. “Except to replace them, but we haven’t because they still work.”
Pallluq said he hasn’t tracked how much energy they’ve produced. But he estimates that the panels produce about a quarter of the power needed to run the community hall, which saves the hamlet anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 a year in electricity.
After the initial installation, VREC staff put in an energy monitoring unit at Clyde River’s community hall and trained a handful of hamlet staff on how to operate the system.
From March 9 until May 3, 2017, for example, the panels generated 1.77 megawatt-hours, or MWh, of power.
But because there was no internet connection at the hall, the Vancouver-based organization hasn’t been able to monitor Clyde River’s energy production remotely.
VREC relies on read-outs sent by the hamlet, though the last one the organization received from Clyde River was last summer, said one of its solar experts, Duncan Martin.
If in fact any of the panels were damaged, Martin said he’d like to find a way to get back to the Baffin community to help repair them.
“The benefit of solar is that there is very little maintenance required,” he said. “If something does go wrong, it’s pretty easy to take out a part and replace it.”
Ideally, Martin said the group would have sourced some plexiglass to install over the top of the panels to protect them.
“The damage from the rocks is really disappointing,” he said. “But if vandalism is the biggest challenge, I’m okay with that. It means solar power is still quite viable.”
It’s changed the way the organization approaches its installation. When VREC was invited to install solar panels in a second Nunavut community last year—Pond Inlet—the group opted to position the panels farther up on the local community hall, so they wouldn’t be an easy target for vandalism.
Last August, VREC installed 32 panels on the building in two rows of 16. The project was funded through the local Ikaarvik Youth Researchers and in-kind donations.
By September, the 32,290-watt panels had offset 590 kWh of electrical consumption, saving the hamlet about $577 on its hydro bill.
What’s new with Pond Inlet’s system is that it’s monitored online in real time, so anyone can track how much energy the panels are producing.
VREC has since reached out to a few other Nunavut communities; Martin said he’s heard back from a few that are interested in solar power.
Looking forward, Martin said that VREC would like to do more training, so communities have better local capacity to manage the panels.
Martin also hopes that as internet speeds increase in the North, that will make monitoring panels that much easier.
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