A proposed state-of-the-art wind power project could reduce more than one-third of the diesel consumed by the town of Nain.

Nain, like every community on the northern Labrador coast, isn’t connected to the electrical grid, and the 1,100 residents rely on diesel for power. Most recent figures from Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, from 2018, indicate the community consumes approximately 2.7 million litres annually, about 2,250 litres per person, excluding diesel burned for home heating.

A wind-powered micro-grid project now in the engineering phase isn’t the first renewable energy project in the region, but when it’s complete it will be the one with the most impact.

The project is a partnership between the Nunatsiavut Government (NG) and Natural Forces, an independent power producer based in Nova Scotia, and if everything goes right it will be up and running by the summer of 2022.

Nunatsiavut Government regional energy co-ordinator Nick Mercer said it’s the first project of this scale not only in Nunatsiavut, but it’s the first renewable energy-powered micro-grid of this scale happening anywhere within the Canadian Arctic.