How One Arctic Hamlet is Harnessing the Sun to Cut Costs and Fuel Change
Stepping inside the repurposed sea cans uptown in Gjoa Haven, a hamlet located 250 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, I was hit with tropical humidity. The first thing I saw at Naurvik — “the growing place” in Inuktitut — an off-grid greenhouse running largely on wind and solar power, was the purple LED lights illuminating stacked racks of basil, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and rows of greens. During my visit on June 9, I had the chance to taste freshly harvested mint and licorice leaves, mini strawberries, cucumbers, and carrots with the Naurvik staff. Though warned by the team, the hybrid hot peppers I sampled burned my tongue for a full 10 minutes, almost like a reminder that growth here comes with heat, quite literally. Naurvik is run in partnership with the Arctic Research Foundation, Agriculture and AgriFood Canada, the Canadian Space Agency, and local technicians from Gjoa Haven. The facility operates in three repurposed shipping containers, powered primarily by two 6-kW wind turbines and two 7.32-kW solar arrays. Large lithium-ion batteries store energy for when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. If needed, a 20-kilowatt diesel generator can step in to keep everything running. Even in the depths of winter, the greenhouse generates roughly 75 percent of its power from renewable sources. Crops harvested here are donated back to the community, reaching schools, Elders, and search-and-rescue teams, so that everyone can reap the benefits of renewable energy.
“The taste [of produce] is a big difference from the stores and the food prices are crazy and get higher every few months,” said Betty Kogvik, a grower at Naurvik. “We can’t even have food on the table anymore.” Her team works long hours, maintaining the plants and solar panels, even during winter power outages when the Arctic is cloaked in darkness for nearly 24 hours a day. Located high above the rest of the community, the greenhouse becomes a tricky trek in winter, with the team relying on snowmobiles to travel over snow 20 cm deep to reach it if the diesel backup goes down. Kogvik, who spends her days tending to the crops and managing the greenhouse with her team, says she dreams of scaling up what they’ve started. “I wish we could expand. I’m really hoping we expand in the future. There’s other communities close by that really want something like this for the future. It would be nice,” she said. The Naurvik project was always meant to be replicable in other communities, and ARF is working to make it as efficient as possible. These mobile labs aren’t cheap — they range from about $80,000 for a basic unit that plugs into the grid to around $200,000 for one with wind, solar, and battery capabilities — but ARF doesn’t make a profit and keeps costs as low as possible, so they remain accessible. The innovation at Naurvik reflects a broader push toward renewable energy across Gjoa Haven, a Nunavut community located on King William Island with roughly 1,500 residents.
A Local Champion of Clean Energy
I got to spend a day visiting the residential and municipal solar installations in Gjoa Haven in the back of the hamlet’s “clean energy champion,” Jimmy Arqviq’s truck. Joining us was Nudrat Ihsan, the Innovation and Research Projects Coordinator, who recently started working with Jimmy to bring solar panels to Gjoa Haven. From the hydroponic greenhouse uptown to the arena and a few homes downtown, solar panels now dot the community on many roofs. “The reason I got into this is mainly because the cost of living is so high up here, not because everybody’s talking about global warming,” said Arqviq, who is also the hamlet’s building maintenance foreman. “I wanted to reduce the cost of living and cost of operations in my community.” For Jimmy, the clean energy journey formally began in 2019, when he was accepted into the Indigenous Clean Energy 20/20 Catalysts Program. The six-month program, led by Indigenous energy leaders from across the country, trains participants — known as Catalysts — to design and lead renewable energy projects, like solar, wind, and bioenergy, in their home communities.
“I always knew about renewable energy — we used wind turbines and solar panels at our outpost camps,” he explained. “But my biggest problem was finding funding. That program connected me to government and nonprofit funders, and that’s what helped me bring projects home to Gjoa Haven.” The Hamlet of Gjoa Haven was selected for the Indigenous Off-Diesel Initiative (IODI), which provides up to $1.6 million in funding to support communities in training energy champions, designing renewable projects, and implementing clean energy systems.
In Gjoa Haven, this has translated into solar installations at the arena, homes, and soon municipal buildings, as well as pilot projects like solar-powered community freezers and heat-pump appliances. Arqviq is one of just 16 Nunavummiut graduates from the program, out of 26 communities in the territory. He has since travelled across Canada to learn from other Indigenous communities running renewable systems. “I’m Inuk, and we have our oral history that’s passed on from generation to generation. Global warming is not new for Inuit people,” he said. “My grandparents used to tell me to not be surprised when people start panicking about global warming. They knew the Arctic would warm again.” Still, his focus remains practical. “Up here, we don’t have other resources than heating fuel or gasoline. That’s what we had to adapt to. So for me, it was about the cost of living.” Jimmy’s efforts have already delivered real savings. The Gjoa Haven arena, equipped with a 10-kW solar PV system that was installed in 2019, now offsets roughly $30,000 per year in energy costs. Even before that, simple efficiency upgrades made a difference. “In 2018, I told one of my SAOs I wanted LED lights in the arena. She said, ‘Jimmy, we don’t have $26,000 to install them.’ I kept pushing, and within three to four months, those lights paid for themselves — our power bill dropped from $10,000 a month to $4,000.”
This spring, five residential homes were added to the solar network. Nearly 20 households applied, and a lucky draw determined the recipients. Each rooftop system can generate enough power to offset a big chunk of a family’s electricity bill.
“On a sunny day, the energy goes into the grid, and people build up credits. Some might even have two or three months of electricity covered in credits,” Jimmy explained. “These homeowners can’t afford $75,000 or $100,000 for an individual unit,” he said. “That was part of my goal, to offset people’s cost of living.” The hamlet’s garage is next on the list — a building that costs $9,000 a month in power bills. Arqviq wants to see solar installed there by next year.
Teaching, Testing, and Looking Ahead
Both Arqviq and Ihsan emphasize that success depends on education and community buy-in. “We are involved in community education sessions, showing people how to use energy more efficiently,” Ihsan said. “Because if we all use less, we need less. It’s that simple.” Jimmy has gone further, handing out small-scale solar gear so people can see the benefits for themselves. “Three years ago, I ordered solar generators for cabin owners. We let people apply and explain why they wanted to try it. Instead of burning gas all summer, they could power up their radios, charge batteries, or run a satellite phone with solar.” “I had people come back saying, ‘I didn’t burn as much diesel this year. I even came home with extra gas.’ That’s when they start to understand what renewable energy really means.” This year, he’s ordered electric ice augers and small wind turbines for community use. “We could talk all day about renewable energy, but unless people can use it hands-on, it’s hard to understand.” The community is also embarking on a multi-year feasibility study into wind power with the Kitikmeot Inuit Association.
The wind resource in Gjoa Haven is quite good. It’s one of the top ten communities across Nunavut,” Ihsan said. Jimmy, looking ahead, doesn’t hesitate when asked about his long-term dream: “My dream is that every home in Gjoa Haven will have a solar panel.”
Challenges Connecting to the Grid
For all of the enthusiasm around solar energy, there are structural challenges. “Well, these larger solar systems take a much longer development time, mainly because the only utility in Nunavut has taken a long time in doing the connection impact assessment,” said Klaus Dohring, president of Green Sun Rising, the company behind the Gjoa Haven solar installations and dozens of others across Nunavut. “That’s why the four projects that were originally intended to be distributed over two years ended up being delayed to the point where we had to do all the installations in one summer. That was the sequence of events.” The scale of those projects was significant: an 80-kW system in Clyde River, a 115-kW system in Arctic Bay, a 100-kW system in Grise Fiord, and a 150-kW system in Pond Inlet. Each installation took roughly three weeks. “Grise Fiord is the northernmost civilian community in North America, and the community reception was exceptional,” said Dohring. “When we arrived, they knew that the work we were doing was for the benefit of the community.” The QEC power plant in Grise Fiord is both the smallest and the most expensive to operate, making the cost of every kilowatt-hour significantly higher than in other Nunavut communities. Fortunately, Grise Fiord already had some experience with solar. In 2022, Green Sun Rising installed a 10 kW ‘net metering’ solar panel project, which offsets the amount of power the community purchases from QEC for their main hamlet building. The challenge now is that not all systems are connected. “Clyde River’s system is now in operation, but for Arctic Bay, they still need to provide the grid connection and meter. The same goes for the other two installations. Once QEC completes that work, all the systems will be operational.”
Net Metering and the Case Against Batteries
Because it’s so expensive to bring diesel to these communities, and because it’s so expensive to operate on diesel, a solar [panel] system makes perfect sense in the Canadian Arctic.” That is why Green Sun Rising is moving ahead with a 200-kW solar project in Resolute Bay in June 2026. “With Resolute Bay, we’ll have large solar systems in all five of the northernmost communities,” he said. “Altogether, all seven of Canada’s northernmost communities will now have at least one operating solar system.” Dohring believes this shift is aligned with northern culture. “People have lived for thousands of years under some of the harshest climate conditions and adapted. They recognize the power of Mother Nature, so using her energy to sustain their lifestyle comes naturally. Drying fish with the sun is already part of daily life.” And solar is not only cultural but practical. “With satellite communication and navigation, people are safer out on the land. Solar makes that possible.”
The solar projects may look like panels bolted onto rooftops or arrays wired into diesel grids, but the real story is about community members like Betty Kogvik tending crops in a solar-powered greenhouse in the winter or Jimmy Arqviq championing a lower cost of living for Gjoa Haven. Their work shows that renewable energy in the Arctic isn’t an abstract climate goal; it’s about making food more affordable, keeping the lights on, and giving future generations options beyond diesel.
