News: Energy

WHITEHORSE—How can a solar energy system remain stable in a place where the sun shines all day during the summer and barely rises above the horizon in winter? This is the question a team of young researchers at Yukon College have sought to answer over the past few months.

The team—led by Michael Ross, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Industrial Research Chair in Northern Energy Innovation—is made up of nine students and early career professionals in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and physics. Since January they have been collaborating on a Northern Energy Innovation Project that explores how renewable energy sources can be integrated into northern communities.

Yukon College has been awarded an Industrial Research Chair for Colleges in Northern Energy Innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). This position is supported by electricity companies in all three Canadian territories to solve challenges faced by the northern energy industry.

The Northern Energy Innovation Chair, Dr. Michael Ross will work closely with a pan-territorial consortium comprised of ATCO Electric, Northwest Territories Power Corporation, Qulliq Energy Corporation Nunavut, and Yukon Energy Corporation. These companies have matched NSERC’s one million dollar contribution by each committing $50,000 per year over the next five years.

Yukon College has been awarded an Industrial Research Chair in Northern Energy Innovation from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to solve issues unique to the electrical energy industry in Canada’s North.

Over the next five years, the Chair will work with the electrical energy industry in all three territories to develop independent applied research projects, while building the knowledge economy across the North through our northern colleges.

Learn more about how this position aims to achieve the highest level of efficiency, reliability, cost reduction, and enhanced environmental stewardship standards in the northern energy industry through applied research and innovation.