Many Northern and Arctic communities are almost entirely reliant on diesel to heat and light their homes and businesses. In October 2022 our community ‘flipped the switch’ on a new 10 kilowatt (kW) solar power installation with support from Canada’s Northern REACHE Program.

With the call to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby helping to slow down or even stop global warming, the completion of this project marked a proud moment for our community, as we take steps to transition to a clean energy future.

These panels are mounted on the west side of our Hamlet office/community complex building. It is a ‘net metering’ installation, which means it helps offset the cost of power for this building.

In addition to the 10 kW system noted above, the installation of our new 100 kW installation was just completed. But rather than being a net metering project this project will generate clean energy that can be sold to the Qulliq Energy Corporation (QEC) locally. In fact we are now functioning as an Independent Power Producer.