When ice becomes (drinking) water: Greenland’s energy heroes

Employees of Greenland’s utility company, Nukissiorfiit, work every day to ensure that residents across the country have access to vital energy, water and heat. Is water manually delivered to houses in some parts of Greenland? Is ice actually melted to provide drinking water? Find out all the answers in this article!

Meet Greenland’s energy heroes!

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Niels Heilmann jumps swiftly out of the large truck, and greets the two pedestrians who are passing by. He slams the truck door behind him and moves around to the back of the truck, where he rolls out the water pipe, opens the water pump and begins to fill up the water tank.

Niels Heilmann with a truck from Nukissiorfiit in Ilulissat. Photo by Aningaaq R Carlsen - Visit Greenland

Niels Heilmann is a driver for Nukissiorfit’s waterworks department, for whom he supplies water to the houses and institutions in Ilulissat that are not connected to the town’s water main. The households that are not connected to the mains in Greenland’s third largest town are, therefore, dependent on Niels and his colleagues to ensure that they have water in the household:

“The water does not stand still. It doesn’t matter who does the work. It just has to be delivered,” he explains.

Niels Heilmann started as an apprentice at Nukissiorfiit in 1998, and in 2008 became part of their waterworks department. Today, he heads up the drivers who deliver water to the town. Because he drives around for many hours every day and delivers water to the residents of Ilulissat, he has become a familiar face to the residents of the town, who often receive him with a smile or a greeting.

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Nukissiorfiit in Ilulissat with huge iceberg. Photo by Aningaaq R Carlsen - Visit Greenland

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Important to the local community

As Greenland’s utility company, Nukissiorfiit is responsible for producing and supplying electricity, water and heat to 17 towns and 53 settlements in Greenland – towns and settlements that are spread over large geographical distances and often isolated from the outside world.

These large distances create particular challenges when it comes to securing electricity, water and heat for the majority of Greenland’s over 56,000 inhabitants. Among these challenges is the fact that almost all towns and settlements in Greenland have their own closed supply system, as due to limited infrastructure it is not possible to have electricity networks that run from one city to another.

Zontikko Tobiassen - Uummannaq - Nukissiorfiit. Photo by Aningaaq R Carlsen -Visit Greenland

One of the towns to which Nukissiorfiit supplies electricity, water and heat is Uummannaq in North Greenland. This is where Zontikko Tobiassen works. She is the manager of the town’s waterworks. It is her job to ensure that all of the residents and institutions in Uummannaq have clean water every day. This is why she tests the water frequently:

“Our work is the most important work in town. Also in terms of the factory, the healthcare system and the people we work for,” she explains. Zontikko Tobiassen was born and has spent most of her life in Uummannaq.

BACK TO MAP Meet Frederik, another hero in Uummannaq

Uummannaq Houses And The Mountain. - Photo- Aningaaq Rosing Carlsen - Visit Greenland

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Collecting ice at the top of Greenland

The workflows that Nukissiorfiit uses to ensure the supply of utilities around Greenland can vary from town to town, depending on the resources available in the area. When it comes to securing water supply, Greenland’s northernmost town, Qaanaaq, stands out. This is the only place in the country where, during the winter months, Nukissiorfiit produces drinking water by collecting and melting glacier ice.

The process begins when glacier ice is broken free, before it is loaded onto a truck which transports the ice to Nukissiorfiit’s plant in Qaanaaq. Today, the glacier ice is broken free with an excavator, but this task was once done by hand.

Niels Qujaukitsoq - Qaanaaq - Nukissiorfiit. Photo by Aningaaq R Carlsen - Visit Greenland

For the 619 residents of Greenland’s northernmost town, this method helps to ensure that they have water in the tap all year round:

“I am happy that we can provide the residents with water that they can use every day without having to work hard for it. When you compare this with how it was in the past, supplying water has become very easy,”

says Niels Qujaukitsoq, who has worked for Nukissiorfiit for 41 years, and today is the manager of the waterworks in Qaanaaq.

The melting of ice for drinking water requires a lot of energy, and is challenged by the fact that the season in which Nukissiorfiit can collect ice is shortened every year due to shorter winters. For this reason, Nukissiorfiit is building a new winter water tank in Qaanaaq, which will mean that it is no longer necessary to collect and melt ice. The winter water tank is expected to be ready in 2022.

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Qaanaaq from the side. Photo by Aningaaq Rosing Carlsen - Visit Greenland

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Green Greenland

Greenland’s spectacular nature gives Nukissiorfiit some unique opportunities to produce renewable energy for their customers. In 2020, 71 percent of the energy Nukissiorfiit produced for the 17 towns and 53 settlements they service, was green energy from, among other things, solar cells, wind power and hydropower. Nukissiorfiit’s ambition is for 100 percent of their energy to be green by the year 2030.

Nukissiorfiit’s focus on green energy is seen and felt around Greenland. In Ilulissat, 95 percent of the town’s energy is green, with the hydropower plant contributing in particular to the production of green energy. Nukissiorfiit has a total of five hydropower plants around Greenland.

Green energy is also produced in Uummannaq. Since the town has an average of 2,000 hours of sunshine a year, in 2020 Nukissiorfiit installed solar cells on the roof of the town’s sports hall. The solar cells in Uummannaq are the most northern place that Nukissiorfiit has placed solar cells. The solar cells on the sports hall are being used to gather experience and knowledge of how solar cells function north of the Arctic Circle.

Frederik Pjettursson in front of solar cells in Uummannaq - Nukissiorfiit. Photo by Aningaaq R Carlsen - Visit Greenland

Frederik Pjettursson, who has worked for Nukissiorfiit for 29 years, helped to set up the solar cells in 2020 as part of his daily work with installations. Today, he helps to ensure that the solar cells, as well as the town’s other energy sources, water sources and heat sources work, so that Uummannaq’s 1,428 residents have water in their taps and heat in their houses:

“Of course, my and our work means a lot to the town. At Nukissiorfiit we are proud of all the things we do,” says Frederik Pjettursson.

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Energy and climate change in Greenland:

Since 1993, Greenland has been partially self-sufficient in terms of energy, due to the production of renewable energy from, among other things, hydropower plants.
Today, Greenland is still dependent on imported oil, gas, diesel and petrol, but the Greenlandic government has made it clear that conventional energy will be phased out in favour of green energy.
Greenland is often described as “ground zero” for climate change.
Greenland’s inland ice is melting faster than ever before, which is leading to rising water levels worldwide.
Temperatures in Greenland – and the rest of the Arctic – are rising twice as fast as in other parts of the world.

Article by Kristina Pihl

Kristina is a former Visit Greenland’s Press and Social Media Manager. Kristina loves traveling and exploring new parts of Greenland while sharing her love for the country through storytelling.