Pangnirtung solar panel project aims to cut hamlet’s diesel use
Installation on school rooftop part of Nunavut Energy Management Program
Joshua Angnakak, left, and Nolan Kuluguqtuk carry solar panels to install on the rooftop of Pangnirtung’s school. (Photo by Corey Larocque)
Joshua Angnakak and Nolan Kuluguqtuk went from working inside Pangnirtung’s Attagoyuk Ilisavik high school to working on top of it.
The pair were hired by Green Sun Rising, a company that installed solar panels on the two-storey school in September.
“We’re working with very good scenery,” Kuluguqtuk said of the view from the school’s roof, which looks straight up the Pangnirtung Fiord.
“We have a bird’s-eye view.”
The two lifelong Pangnirtung residents graduated from the school six years ago. They jumped at the opportunity to pick up some construction work over the summer.
“This is my first time working with solar panels,” said Angnakak. “This was a great opportunity … to learn new things.”
Workers with Green Sun Rising, an Ontario renewable energy company, install solar panels on the roof of Pangnirtung’s Attagoyuk Ilisavik high school. The solar panels are part of a Government of Nunavut project to reduce the amount of diesel burned in the territory to generate electricity. (Photo by Corey Larocque)
Kuluguqtuk said he liked learning about renewable energy while on the job. He hadn’t been working for part of the summer because he competed with Nunavut’s volleyball team at the North American Indigenous Games in Nova Scotia in July.
Green Sun Rising is based in Windsor, Ont. It’s been working with solar energy projects for 15 years and has been doing work in the North for more than 10 years.
The company has installed 54 solar projects in the North, said president Klaus Dohring. Its next one will be in Sanirajak.
Most of those projects are installed on community owned or operated buildings, like schools.
“The solar system does not know what the building underneath does,” Dohring said.
In Pangnirtung, Green Sun Rising installed 180 modules — or solar panels — on the school’s roof. Each panel measures 1.5 metres by two metres, a little smaller than a door. Six tonnes of material arrived this year by sealift, and installation work took place in September.
The company missed the first of Pangnirtung’s three sealifts early in the summer, but got its materials on the second shipment.
Putting solar panels on the schools comes at a cost of $790,000, according to Nunavut’s Department of Community and Government Services, which manages the building. It’s part of the Government of Nunavut’s Atuttiarniq/Nunavut Energy Management Project.
There are two similar projects on Nunavut schools, including Kinngait’s Peter Pitseolak school and Sanirajak’s Arnaqjuaq school.
In total, the three projects will cost Nunavut $1.7 million, department spokesperson Hala Duale said in an email. Combined, those three solar panel projects could reduce the volume of diesel fuel used to generate electricity by up to 14,000 litres a year, Duale said.
Dohring says his calculations show the Pangnirtung solar panels alone could result in 13,076 litres of diesel a year not having to be burned to generate electricity.
“On a good sunny day, depending on your usage, it should meet the need of the school,” Dohring said.
He said he sees solar energy as his company’s contribution to reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Helping northern communities reduce their energy costs means they will have more money to do something else to benefit the community.
Burning less diesel means more than just reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Solar power also creates a smaller carbon footprint, because it results in less fuel having to be shipped to the community in the first place.
“Diesel, in very remote Canadian communities, is very well-travelled,” Dohring said.
That surplus energy will be fed into the community’s power grid, supplying the needs of other buildings. That will result in less diesel being used on an annual basis.
“It’s true the weather will always change. The sun will always rise. In the long run, it all averages out,” Dohring said.
Wow, $1.7 million in up-front costs to save $20,000 per year; just an 85 year payback. Poor cost-benefit ourcome; except for the inflated virtue-credit
Save 20,000$ a year if kids don’t smash them with rocks like in Clyde river
Green Peace with Nanny McPhee came to Clyde River during the heights of the seismic testing farcical episode. They brought solar panels which were rather quickly attached to the C-Hall. This was a great endeavor for a few days until they were smashed with rocks. True story… Northern Manager’s houses, teacher’s houses, the school and many other places that feature glass windows receive the same fate. During summers when teachers return to their homelands, Housing boards up their windows/doors with plywood at a cost to the tenant. Whack?
The metric of saving money is weak compared to the environment damage done hour after hour by diesel generators spewing climate impacting gasses 24)7
Okay but, saving money is still a good incentive.
If you look up the manufacturing process of solar panels, JUST the panels, not the batteries, you come up with a staggering number. These panels have to be up and operational for over 15 years before they become a “carbon neutral” and “green” source of energy. Creating solar panels is an extremely dirty process and isn’t anywhere near as clean as the greenies would have you believe.
Your (southern fed) dog has a bigger footprint than a 4 wheel drive.
Its $1.7m for the three schools, $790k for Pang, so more likely 40 yr payback, but still poor cost-benefit outcome
Anybody who has been to Pang has experienced the fog, and coastal fog decreases the efficiency of the panels by at least 50%. When school is in, the ambient sunlight is decreased, so the 14,000-liter savings is pretty optimistic, plus the budget is 1.7M. When was the last time a project was finished on budget in this Territory? But hey, we checked a box.
Nunatsiaq, can you please do a follow up on all the other solar panels put on public buildings in other communities to see it any of them are operational and what the real life savings are… as i am sure the stated savings before they are installed are way better then reality.
500k worth of Panels in Kugluktuk but nobody knows if they work or not..$$$$ rec centre doesn’t open long enough to tell as the area can’t make ice, I’m sure our Mla brings that up every week.