The Three Nations Energy solar farm in Fort Chipewyan is good to go!
The large solar farm owned by Three Nations Energy (3NE) in Fort Chipewyan is finished construction and in the process of being commissioned to deliver clean solar energy to the local Fort Chipewyan grid.
The locally owned phase II solar farm is 2,200 kilowatts, adding almost four times more solar production to the ATCO 600-kilowatt solar farm completed last summer. Together the solar farms will provide 25 per cent of Fort Chipewyan’s electricity each year. The two solar projects will reduce diesel use by 800,000 litres per year. Better yet it’s safer, eliminating the diesel tanker truck trips on the ice road by 25 truck loads per year.
3NE has also installed their own 2.5-megawatt battery storage system that will help ensure more solar energy is used on the local grid.
“We have a plan and we are executing our plan to develop a clean, green economy for everybody to be sustainable well into the future generations to come,” says Chief Allan Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
The project is a symbol of what the three nations can do when they work together says Calvin Waquan, a director with Three Nations Energy. “It’s moving us into a new phase of independence for our people,” he says.
“What you see behind me is the two point two megawatt solar farm, which is sixty five hundred panels,” adding that since they are saving so much money managing the project “We’re adding another row [of solar modules],” says Waquan.
The 3NE project is managed by Greenplanet Energy Analytics (GEA) working with 3NE and ATCO. Clayton Stafford of GEA confirms they are now working on commissioning (getting the batteries and solar working properly with the local grid) and things should be up and running in a few weeks!
The 400 extra solar panels will be installed in early 2021.
