Solar has now been installed at nine remote cabins out on the Peace-Athabasca Delta where folks from the three nations of Fort Chipewyan have their cabins.
We travelled with Randal Perras of Greenplanet Energy Analytics to Raymond Cardinal’s cabin at Big Point a remote region of the Athabasca River Delta in northern Alberta, Canada.
Randal is an electrician who landed this pretty cool job of installing off-grid solar systems at First Nations cabins to replace gas generators, or “gennies” as Randall calls them.
Since this trip Randal has installed four more solar systems at cabins bringing the total to nine so far. He was all set to install the remaining solar systems last week, but the weather took a nasty turn.
It takes one to six hours to reach the cabins across Lake Athabasca, the biggest lake in Alberta. You really need your woolies to survive three degrees Celsius in an open boat on the lake in the fall!
Randal and Greenplanet designed these innovative solar systems which consist of four solar modules and four batteries – enough to power the lights, a small fridge and other appliances at the cabins.
Randal says the reaction is always the same when he completes an installation: “It’s so quiet now,” said Timmy Flett after the system was installed at his cabin. Aside from saving up to $30 worth of gas per day, the silence of solar power is golden on the Delta.
Randal is set to install the remaining four cabins in late October, weather permitting.
