Portrait
Name
JP Pinard
Location
Kluane First Nation, YT
Description
JP Pinard is a professional engineer and a community wind and renewable energy researcher, consultant, advisor, and advocate. JP grew up in the northern mining town of Val-d’Or, Quebec, in James Bay Cree territory, and his ancestors came from France in 1647. He received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo and wandered into Whitehorse in 1992. His calling to renewable energy came in 1996, and he returned to university (University of Alberta) to pursue a master’s degree and then a PhD on the wind climate of the mountainous Yukon. He has assessed the wind energy potential in dozens of communities across all three Territories of Northern Canada. JP’s vision for the Yukon and Canada’s remote communities is to be carbon-free and gain economic wealth from renewables and energy efficiency. His primary focus is to help the Kluane First Nation build a renewable energy future and share this experience with other champion communities across Canada’s North.