Yukon community cuts diesel use by more than half
Rows of solar panels make up the newly inaugurated Saa/Se solar facility ("sun" in the Southern Tutchone language), a groundbreaking renewable power project in the Yukon's Beaver Creek community. Photo submitted by Alexandre Vigneault.
By Sonal Gupta
For 55 days this summer, the small Yukon community in Beaver Creek ran entirely on solar power.
The White River First Nation’s Saa/Se Solar project began operating in April and now supplies more than half of the community’s electricity. The transition is expected to eliminate roughly 340,000 litres of diesel use each year, offsetting more diesel than any other solar facility in Canada.
Beaver Creek, home to about 100 people in Yukon’s remote southwest corner near the Alaska border, has historically relied on round-the-clock diesel power with generators that hum day and night.
“It used to be that if you didn't hear the humming, it meant power outage,” said Alexandre Vigneault, the engineer on the project.
The 1.9-megawatt solar farm combines 3,520 solar panels with a battery storage system that can hold power for up to 12 hours, allowing Beaver Creek to run predominantly on clean solar energy even after the sun goes down or during cloudy periods.