Here comes the sun: Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation to offset diesel with solar panels in Old Crow
The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and ATCO Electric Yukon signed a historic 25-year energy agreement this week in Whitehorse.
The First Nation, based in Old Crow, Yukon, is installing enough solar panels to offset 190,000 litres of diesel per year. ATCO will buy the solar energy, feed it into the power grid, and redistribute it to the community.
Old Crow is 127 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. It's the only fly-in community in Yukon, and it currently relies entirely on diesel as a source of electricity.
Offsetting 190,000 litres of the approximately 800,000 litres of diesel burned per year in total is a "very significant amount," said Dana Tizya-Tramm, a councillor with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation.
"You see us going off diesel generators from March to September on very sunny days," Tizya-Tramm said.
An area next to the Old Crow airport has been cleared for the panels to be set up.
Tizya-Tramm said that, in typical Old Crow fashion, several elderly women insisted the area is important for berry picking, so rows of bushes were left when the land was cleared. The solar panels will be installed around the bushes.
While elders saved the berry bushes, the impetus for the large-scale solar installation came from the community's young people.
"Our young leaders, you know, they've had this vision for years now," said Bruce Charlie, the chief of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. "Now we're on the doorstep of reality, it's very, very exciting for our community."
Tizya-Tramm negotiated the deal with ATCO; he said it was the most technical file he's worked on. He said the agreement will serve as a template for other communities who want to follow in the Vuntut Gwitchin's footsteps.
"You have a lean and mean scrappy First Nation breaking a lot of the way in the Yukon," said Tizya-Tramm.
The solar panels will be installed this summer. Next summer, they will be feeding energy into the power grid.
