The Thay T’äw Wind Energy Project on Haeckel Hill outside Kwanlin/Whitehorse, Yukon on March 27. The project allows the Kwanlin Dün First Nation to reduce southern Yukon’s need for diesel fuel and liquefied natural gas, which provide baseload power at peak times.Alistair Maitland/The Globe and Mail
Atop Haeckel Hill, overlooking Whitehorse in the southeast distance, the icy early-spring wind stings your face. Struggling to maintain footing, it’s obvious why the location is ideal for the four turbines generating power that feeds southern Yukon’s power grid.
They have been in operation since last summer on the prominent peak, generating enough electricity to keep the lights on at 650 homes per year. For the First Nation that owns the wind farm, it also bolsters hard-won sovereignty – a concept Canadians everywhere are contemplating as U.S. President Donald Trumps talks of annexing the country.
The Haeckel Hill-Thay T’äw Wind Energy Project allows the Kwanlin Dün First Nation to reduce southern Yukon’s need for diesel fuel and liquefied natural gas, which provide baseload power at peak times. It does so in a way that fits with the nation’s environmental and cultural philosophy, Chief Sean Smith said.
“That’s an important picture for us to continue to think about. I know with all this sovereignty talk there’s a lot of talk about energy and other dynamics,” he said recently at his nation’s cultural centre in Whitehorse.
“These are interesting things that are going on for First Nations right here. We’re at the table, we’re willing to talk with business about doing business in our territory, but we want it to be done in a good way.”
Sean Uyenets’echᶖa Smith, Chief of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, pictured at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre in Kwanlin/Whitehorse on March 27, says renewable energy projects are done in a way that fits with the nation’s environmental and cultural philosophy.Alistair Maitland/The Globe and Mail
In some ways, though, the Kwanlin Dün turbines highlight the difficulty of expanding renewable energy in Canada’s North. The 4 MW project had to be designed to withstand frigid winters. The turbine blades are black, rather than the standard white, to minimize ice buildup. In addition, heaters are embedded in the blades themselves.
Beyond specialized technology, there are a host of barriers Northerners face in their quest for more green energy, including cost, bureaucracy and a lack of technical capacity within small communities to maintain the equipment. Some of the difficulties stem from distance, which means they are often far from grids most Canadians take for granted.
The variability of renewable generation means that fossil fuels can’t be phased out altogether, so the current goal is to cut their use when not needed.
Now, proponents who have sought for years to get renewables installed see Canada’s push to protect its borders against expansionist threats from major powers as an opportunity. It starts with building up resilience – reducing reliance on fossil fuels that are subject to outside market forces and contribute to global warming, said Michael Ross, industrial research chair in Northern energy innovation at Yukon University.
“Sure, there can be economies of scale there. But if that supply is hindered in any way, even in terms of energy security, in terms of global geopolitical aspects, if we don’t build in the resiliency then we are at the mercy of external forces over which we have no control,” he said.
Dr. Ross has been instrumental in providing students with the foundation in energy development that allows them to plan projects in their communities, integrating their culture with the concepts.
The North Klondike Solar Array north of Kwanlin/Whitehorse, Yukon has been in operation since 2021.Alistair Maitland/The Globe and Mail
“It’s about how the renewable energy feeds into the local economy, how it keeps the community together, how it provides job opportunities. It inspires the youth in order to pursue other energy initiatives. It’s energy security going back to their roots of utilizing what resources are available locally.”
If a recent gathering on the topic is any indication, interest is growing. About 375 delegates attended Pembina Institute’s Renewables in Remote Communities convention in Whitehorse in late March.
Pembina’s Lynne Couves, the event’s organizer, said heightened awareness of the North’s vulnerabilities brought experts and community leaders from across Canada to discuss energy security and sovereignty along with environmental considerations.
Notable at the event were numerous young people, marshalled by organizations such as Indigenous Clean Energy and SevenGen Energy, collaborating and taking an activist approach to modernizing power systems in their communities.
Today, Canada’s territories are powered largely by diesel generators, as utilities prioritize maintaining steady electricity flow. Sometimes fuel is barged into communities; in other cases, it is flown in. This is certainly true in Nunavut, where Qulliq Energy Corp. provides electricity for 25 remote communities, including the capital Iqaluit, all with diesel.
Yukon and Northwest Territories have significant hydroelectric capacity in the south, but use fossil fuels for backup and to generate electricity for remote regions. But that is changing.
Haeckel Hill-Thay T’äw was the first wind farm in the Yukon. The Kwanlin Dün First Nation is also nearing startup of energy storage batteries on its traditional land, adding reliability to the equation.
Whitehorse-based Solvest develops rooftop and utility-scale renewable energy projects across the territories.
Alistair Maitland/The Globe and Mail
The Old Crow solar project in Northern Yukon has been in operation since 2021, generating power for that community. It is owned by the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, which operates the facility and sells to power to Atco Ltd. under a 25-year contract. It is designed to reduce diesel consumption by 189,000 litres annually.
In Nunavut, Kivalliq Alternative Energy is building a 1.4 MW solar and 1 MW battery project in the Kivalliq region, and five more renewable ventures are in various stages of development. The joint venture pairs Sakku Investments Corp., which is the region’s Inuit development corporation, with Vancouver-based Northern Energy Capital. The latter was also instrumental in developing the Whitehorse wind farm.
Northern Energy has developed projects in the territories since 2016, navigating government funding sources and bringing Indigenous communities on board. Those are both key to getting developments built as private capital has yet to see sizable opportunities for returns, said Malek Tawashy, the company’s chief executive officer.
Renewables offer both geographic and economic independence: Remote communities can generate revenues that will reduce their reliance on the federal government over time and diversify their local economies.
“So right here at home, producing electrons from their own natural resources – it really shifts the conversation,” Mr. Tawashy said.
Larger projects may also be on the Horizon. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew has proposed construction of a 1,200 kilometre transmission line to send 50 MW of hydro power to the Kivalliq region.
On the national sovereignty front, federal political leaders have called for an increased military presence in the Far North, and that could mean a heightened role for renewables. Those installations could help solve the problems of generating power and limited technical capacity in small settlements to operate it, said Yuri Podmoroff, manager, mitigation at Nunavut’s Climate Change Secretariat.
He envisions development of modular renewable systems that could be used by residents, industrial sites such as mines, as well as the military.
“When you look at a map, it’s kind of hard to really appreciate how much land mass we have, how much coast to cover, how difficult it would be to to protect such an area,” Mr. Podmoroff said.
“But if we let ourselves imagine how that could be accomplished, it would be pretty cool if you had modular movable energy to power whatever it is that you needed.”
Ben Power, CEO of Solvest looks over the North Klondike Solar Array on March 26.Alistair Maitland/The Globe and Mail
Physical challenges associated with Northern regions, such as building on permafrost, can be overcome, said Ben Power, CEO of Whitehorse-based Solvest, which develops rooftop and utility-scale projects across the territories. That includes the North Klondike Solar Array just outside the Yukon capital, in operation since 2021.
The sovereignty push is not as simple as reducing diesel consumption, he cautioned. Most solar panels are imported from southeast Asia, where costs are far lower. But that’s not necessarily a negative thing, he said.
“For every job in solar manufacturing, there’s 200 jobs in installation,” Mr. Power said. “The industry and the entire country benefits far more from widespread deployment of the technology than it does from protecting a number of manufacturing jobs.”