Naujaat’s $19M solar project comes online
Renewable energy project expected to supply 30 per cent of Naujaat’s annual electricity demand
Community leaders, government officials and project partners gathered in Naujaat on Wednesday to mark the completion of a $19-million solar and battery-storage project that’s expected to supply about 30 per cent of the community’s annual electricity needs. Pictured here, from left to right, is Ernest Douglas, QEC president and CEO; Gwen Healey Akearok, minister responsible for QEC; Alex Guilbeault, QEC’s vice president of operations and engineering; Otito Atansi, QEC’s manager of alternative and renewable energy; Stephan Angotialuk, QEC’s assistant operator in Naujaat; and Jonathan Siusangnark, QEC’s plant superintendent in Naujaat. (Photo courtesy of Qulliq Energy Corp.)
From her cabin just outside Naujaat, resident and former Kivalliq Inuit Association director Helena Malliki can see the solar panels she spent years pushing to bring to her community.
“I get a feeling that I’ve done something for the community,” she said in an interview Friday.
Malliki served as the KIA director for Naujaat while plans were developed for the Kivalliq Hydro-Fibre Link, a proposed 1,200-kilometre transmission line that would carry hydroelectric power north from Manitoba.
Naujaat and Coral Harbour were not included in the planned route, which was designed to connect five mainland communities: Arviat, Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet and Whale Cove.
Malliki said that inspired her to push for another option for Naujaat.
“I was asking if we can get a windmill or a solar panel, and I fought for that,” she said. “And it happened.”
The Ikayuut Solar and Energy Storage Project began supplying electricity to the community’s grid Aug. 20, ahead of a ribbon-cutting ceremony the project partners held Wednesday.
The project was developed by Kivalliq Alternative Energy, a partnership between Sakku Investments Corp. and Vancouver-based Northern Energy Capital. Construction began in 2024.
It operates under Qulliq Energy Corp.’s Independent Power Producer program, which allows independent renewable-energy developers to generate electricity and sell it to QEC.
The Ikayuut Solar and Energy Storage Project is the first to operate under the program.
The solar array is located at a reclaimed municipal scrapyard about 400 metres from the nearest homes in Naujaat, James Griffith, Northern Energy Capital’s director of development said in an email.
The project, which includes 1.4-megawatts of solar power and a one-megawatt-hour battery storage system, is expected to generate roughly 30 per cent of Naujaat’s annual electricity demand, according to a joint release from Sakku and Northern Energy Capital.
Over its expected 25- to 30-year lifespan, it is expected to replace about 400,000 litres of diesel fuel, the release said.
It cost about $19 million to build, Griffith said.
Most of the funding came from federal programs, including the Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities program, the Low Carbon Economy Fund, Indigenous Community Infrastructure Fund and the Indigenous Off-Diesel Initiative.
The Government of Nunavut also contributed another $250,000 through its Sustainable Energy Support Policy, he said.
“The most important thing about this project was to reduce the cost of energy bills, and for using clean energy, instead of diesel, for the environment,” Malliki said.
Under its Independent Power Producer program, QEC purchases renewable electricity at a price equivalent to the cost of generating electricity with diesel, the corporation told Nunatsiaq News in an email.
Naujaat residents filled all eight to 12 construction jobs that the project created, said Griffith. Two residents will be employed during the project’s operations.
QEC says the project is still undergoing testing and is expected to reach its full renewable-energy production capacity in spring 2027, the email said.
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