Researchers and Nunavut’s energy corporation hope geothermal energy may reduce the territory’s dependence on diesel and aid food production in remote communities.
Nunavut is almost 100 percent dependent on diesel fuel for power generation. But researchers and Nunavut’s energy corporation have teamed up to explore how geothermal energy could reduce fuel dependence and fight food insecurity in some of the territory’s remote communities.
Spending two weeks each in Cambridge Bay and Resolute Bay, the goal for the researchers has been to explore how geothermal energy may help reduce the territory’s reliance on diesel and aid with heating homes and sustainable food production across the North.
A unique landscape
The research team — led by University of Alberta professor Martyn Unsworth and funded through federal funding received by the Qulliq Energy Corporation in partnership with Respec Inc. — traveled to two communities in Nunavut this summer. Unsworth, a professor of geophysics at the University of Alberta for more than 15 years now, said the science behind geothermal energy is simple: using heat generated by rock layers and water below the earth’s surface to generate power and electricity.
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