Norway has installed the world’s northernmost ground solar panels in its Svalbard archipelago, despite the region being plunged into darkness from early October until mid-February every year.
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00:00 It's being billed as the world's most northerly solar panel station.
00:05 Despite being in darkness for half the year, the test project on Norway's Svalbard archipelago
00:11 has begun providing electricity to a remote former shipping radio station that now serves as a tourist site.
00:18 The 360 panels should provide the station, which is just 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole,
00:25 with about half of its energy needs.
00:28 Putting up solar panels at the Eastview radio in the Arctic might not sound like a good idea
00:33 because we have the dark season where it's completely dark.
00:35 Of course it will not produce anything then, but in the light season, in the summer,
00:40 we have the sun up 24 hours a day and we also have a bigger albedo, that's reflectability of the light in the air.
00:48 And also the low temperature here gives better efficiency on the panels.
00:53 Remote Arctic communities are often reliant on diesel generators that have heavy CO2 emissions.
01:00 If this project is successful, it will point the way for other isolated far northern regions
01:06 to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels.
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