Norway brings solar panels into service near the North Pole

Norway has installed solar panels in its Svalbard archipelago, a region plunged in round-the-clock darkness all winter, in a pilot project that could help remote Arctic communities transition to green energy.

Published: 19 September 2023 10:01 CEST

Norway will make use of solar panels on Svalbard. Pictured are homes on Svalbard. Photo by Eirik Hodne on Unsplash

Neatly lined up in six rows in a field, 360 solar panels will on Thursday begin providing electricity to an old shipping radio station, Isfjord Radio, now converted into a base camp for tourists.

The windswept archipelago — also known as Spitsbergen — is located some 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) from the North Pole and is accessible only by boat or helicopter, weather-permitting.

“It’s what we believe to be the world’s northernmost ground-mounted PV (photovoltaic) system,” Mons Ole Sellevold, renewable energies technical adviser at state-owned energy group Store Norske, told AFP.

“It’s the first time anyone has done it at this scale in the Arctic,” he said, his rifle slung over his shoulder in case polar bears turn up, a not uncommon occurrence at these latitudes.

Another 100 solar panels are positioned on the roof of the radio station — which has until now run on diesel generators — and should cover about half of the site’s electricity needs and cut its CO2 emissions.

In summer, the region is bathed in an abundance of sunlight, with a “midnight sun” that never sets.

The solar panels also benefit from the “albedo” effect, the reflective power of snow and ice, as well as low temperatures that improve their efficiency.

Conversely, in winter, the region is plunged in total darkness from early October until mid-February, which makes it impossible for Isfjord Radio to completely give up fossil fuels.

Store Norske is therefore also considering other alternatives, such as wind farms, to further the station’s green transition.

– ‘Test site’ –

The move is motivated by environmental considerations as well as economic factors, with diesel costly to buy and transport, while solar panels are also
easy to maintain and do not break down, Sellevold said.

The aim is also to use the installation as a pilot project to see if the technology can be used by some 1,500 other sites or communities in the Arctic that are not hooked up to traditional electricity grids and also need to transition to green energy, he said.

“We want to make Isfjord Radio a test site to … get an Arctic-proven technology that we can afterwards take to other locations like this,” he said.

According to a study published last year, the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the planet over the past 40 years, causing ice to melt faster and disrupting ecosystems.

This has affected both local populations and the rest of the world, with rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

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It follows an earlier study in May, also by the European Pesticide Action Network (PAN Europe) and its members, that found “alarming” levels of PFAS chemicals in Europe’s rivers, lakes and groundwater.

Widely used in everyday items like cosmetics, non-stick pans and fire extinguishers, PFAS long-life substances are highly durable products that can take centuries to break down.

Samples for this latest study, taken from bottled and tap water in 11 EU countries, detected the presence of TFA (trifluoroacetic acid).

A major source of TFA is degrading PFAS used in certain synthetic pesticides and cooling gases in refrigeration and air conditioning, among other applications.

The possible impact on human health of PFAS, and of TFA in particular, has been growing, but “surprisingly few toxicological studies are available”, PAN Europe said.

The samples tested by the Water Technology Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany, found TFA in 34 of 36 tap water samples and in 12 of the 19 bottled mineral and spring waters.

TFA values in tap water ranged from “undetectable” to 4,100 nanograms/litre, with an average of 740 ng/L.

In mineral and spring waters, TFA values ranged from “undetectable” to 3,200 ng/L, with an average of 278 ng/L.

PAN Europe backed the proposal made by the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment to set a standard at 2,200 ng/L.

This “was set in such a way that the consumption of drinking water only fulfils 20 percent of the tolerable daily intake,” PAN Europe said.

This threshold was exceeded in mineral water analysed in drinking water from Austria (4,100 ng/L), while in Paris, the tap water analysed contained 2,100 ng/L.

Under European Union rules, from 2026 all drinking water must not exceed 500 ng/L for all PFAS, and NGOs are demanding that TFA be added to the list.

An earlier decision to class TFA as “non-relevant” under EU pesticide regulations was “regrettable” considering its “toxicological profile still leaves many questions unanswered”, the report in May said.

A recent study on rabbits and TFA exposure found birth defects in offspring, raising serious concerns about this chemical.

PAN Europe has called for urgent interventions to address this “political failure”, starting with a “rapid ban” on PFAS pesticides and a rethink on the threat posed by individual chemicals like TFA.