The government of Canada recently announced C$3.1 million in funding for the Kluane First Nation (KFN) to install and operate wind turbines that will help reduce their community’s reliance on diesel.
The community will integrate three 100 kW turbines in Destruction Bay, Yukon – providing a renewable energy source for their local power grid, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and creating local jobs, says Natural Resources Canada.
Natural Resources Canada’s C$2 million contribution came from the Clean Energy for Rural and Remote Communities Program, part of the government of Canada’s more than C$180 billion Investing in Canada infrastructure plan. Crown-Indigenous Relations’ and Northern Affairs Canada contributed C$1.1 million from the Northern REACHE Program. Both programs invest in projects designed to reduce reliance on fossil fuels in Canada’s rural, remote and Indigenous communities.
“The government of Yukon is proud to support Kluane First Nation in developing locally sourced renewable energy that will meet the needs of their community in a sustainable way,” says Ranj Pillai, the government of Yukon’s minister of energy, mines and resources. “This wind energy project will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions while allowing Kluane First Nation to develop capacity in emerging technologies that can provide both economic and environmental benefits.”
Bob Dickson, chief of KFN, adds, “Kluane First Nation has been working on renewable resources since the 80s on micro hydro, geothermal, wind and biomass heating, and to see KFN’s wind energy project come to fruition has been a huge accomplishment for all parties involved on this project.”
Photo: Mavv.Rick – “The Yukon Wild” – Travel Writer https://www.flickr.com/people/yukontravelwriter/ [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]
