OLD CROW SOLAR PROJECT
The small rural community of Old Crow with nearly 250 inhabitants lies 80 miles North of the Arctic Circle in the Yukon Territory. It’s over one hundred miles from any other community, is not connected to a major road system – or any road system at all – nor to any centralized energy grid. Its remote location has relied on diesel for its electricity needs. The fuel has to be flown in by planes and leads to some of the highest economic and ecological electricity costs in Canada.
The Project
The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, as the Independent Power Producer, owner and operator, and ATCO Electric Yukon established a first-of-its kind Electricity Purchase Agreement (EPA) for ATCO to purchase the electricity generated at the solar PV facility for the next 25 years and will be an important source of revenue for this remote Indigenous community.
As of the beginning of August 2021, the solar project is 100 per cent operational in which diesel generations were shut off for the first time in over 50 years and plans to be off diesel during the summer months for the years to come.
SNAPSHOT
Location: Old Crow, Yukon
Client: Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation
Category: Renewables, Electricity Purchase Agreement
Benefits:
- Reduce local diesel use by approximately 190,000 litres annually
- Reduces CO2 emissions by 750 tonnes each year – the equivalent of taking 160 cars off the road
- Turning off the diesel generation facility will project a saving of more than 2,000 engine hours per year
- Improves air quality, reduces noise, less environmental risk
- Enables community ownership and self-sustaining economic development through job creation, investment in infrastructure and revenue from the sale of clean energy