Iqaluit’s One Man Solar Powerhouse
Bert Rose’s interest in solar energy dates back to his childhood, when his brother was given a solar switch for Christmas when the younger Rose was twelve.
“It was a switch that turned on and off by exposure to light… it had two prongs sticking out at the bottom, and it didn’t do anything!”
Bert then tried to take apart the switch while his brother was at school. “That was my introduction to solar panels. I was always kind of aware of them, and what they might or might not do. “Then in 1992, I was the Dean here at [Arctic] College in Iqaluit,” the retired 81-year-old elaborates. The Canadian government established an experimental solar panel program, featuring 33 panels mounted on the front of the building, which produced approximately 3 kilowatts per hour.
A watt is a unit of electricity that is generated and sold to people to power things in their homes through an electricity grid. A single watt produces enough energy to run a traditional flashlight for five hours. Most people are familiar with the classic 60-watt light bulb, named for the amount of power it uses — 60 watts of electricity. A kilowatt is simply a larger unit, equal to 1,000 watts. “We rigged it up so it would run the hall lights in the college,” says Rose. “Between 1993 and 2016, those panels produced electricity, and they saved the college $250,000.”
Solar energy works when photon waves from the sun excite molecules inside a silicon panel, which is protected by an aluminum frame within a glass coating on the front. When those atoms are excited, they release electrons, which flow out and become an electric current.
Solar power is generated as alternating current, which changes direction in cycles — producing what’s called 60-cycle electricity. This means the current reverses its flow sixty times per second. Rose has solar panels “mounted directly on the walls of our home. The horizontal mounting of the panels takes advantage of the 90% reflection of the snow, which we have lots of.”
He says the highest production he’s ever seen on his property in the summer is 500 kilowatts per month, dropping to just 50 or 60 in the winter.
In 2022, Rose produced 4,125 kilowatt-hours of electricity. From 2021 to 2025, his solar energy production totaled 14,175 kilowatt-hours, which he estimates has saved his household $10,631. “The solar energy that’s produced first powers the lights in your house,” Rose explains. “Any extra energy is then transmitted into the community’s electrical system.” Rose is not only generating power for himself, but also helping to sustain the rest of Iqaluit in an environmentally friendly way — earning credits from the power company during the winter months when his panels produce less. “The impact on the environment is really significant, because we’re not burning anything… but the big reduction is that the [power] generating plant isn’t running as hard or burning as much fuel as it otherwise would.”
