Hedgehog Technologies is an
electromechanical engineering company
and we do projects where high
performance engineering products are
required we work in renewable energy in
remote locations we build roller
coasters and we have built submarines
because we’re in the renewable energy
industry Fort Severn First Nations
Community had heard about us they are
located on the most Northerly point of
Ontario and where Manitoba Ontario and
Hudson’s Bay join an area called the
Severn River which is the last breeding
grounds of the polar bear in Ontario
they have long and sexual ties with the
polar bear you know they’ve been
tracking polar bear activity up there
for a long time and so they noticed a
change for the polar bear were changing
their patterns and behavior that was
quite alarming for the community so that
really motivated and sparked this
commitment to starting this project and
doing renewable energy in Fort Severn
their electricity is powered by diesel
generator they have only two ways to get
the fuel up there they can get it up
either by barge on Hudson Bay or they
can get it up by Ice Road so you can see
it’s very expensive and carbon intensive
so they saw a real need to do a
renewable energy project up there their
primary energy load is heat and light
that uses hundreds of thousands of
liters of diesel a year and they propose
a solar project that would reduce the
diesel consumption by about a hundred
thousand liters of diesel foreign
T is a 300 kilowatt solar farm 300
kilowatts is about two football fields
in size and that could power up to maybe
a hundred houses
we were actually brought onto this
project after an original team had
attempted it and were unsuccessful the
first thing we did is work with the
community talk with them about what’s
important and the Order of Things based
on the seasons and the culture and the
land
these projects are their projects and
they want to see them succeed and we’re
there to help support and facilitate
that as much as the system really aligns
with cultural values and goals for them
in terms of being more environmentally
friendly and courteous the other goal is
you know for them to have a bit more
ownership and control over how they
produce and utilize energy in their
community
because of the displaced cost of fuel
they don’t need to bring it up anymore
they’re being paid to run the solar farm
by the utility they’re making a couple
hundred thousand dollars a year the
chief is putting all that money into
building new houses so that was one
economic benefit of the solar farm the
other is is we were mentoring people we
gave a course on how to build solar
Farms so they can fix it themselves and
maintain it themselves
so it took extensive amount of planning
and a lot of creative engineering being
able to design and work with people that
are committed to these kind of projects
is amazing
it proves that these Northerly projects
are possible and it’s possible by the
people that live there
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