summer season, thus saving about 190.000 litres of diesel per year (~400,000 $/a). The plant has been built in an back-to-back configuration to receive a mostly continuous solar harvest during the day. Consequently, the DC capacity of the PV panels (in sum 940 kWpeak) is partly orientated westwards and partly eastwards; the AC capacity of the PV inverter is 480 kW. A battery energy storage system (BESS) has been added with an energy capacity of 350 kWh, balancing out smaller cloud fluctuations and avoiding rapid start stop cycles of the diesel gensets. The whole PV-BESS plant is $6.5 million and shall last for at least 25 years. By May 2021, the solar plant had begun producing electricity, projected to be fully operational by July and capable of letting the community turn off their diesel generators on sunny days. Communications Old Crow is served by Northwestel since 1971. The long distance connection originally relied on a microwave relay at Rat Pass near the Yukon/NWT border, which also provide a radio-telephone base station along the Dempster Highway, but it was frequently out of service in winter when weather conditions made helicopter access hazardous. In the late 1980s, a satellite ground station was installed in Old Crow, providing more reliable service. The long distance connection is noteworthy for two minor incidents. In 1985, the Yukon territorial election was covered by live television coverage for the first time, sent by satellite to Toronto for switching into the network stations in Yukon; however, results from Old Crow were unavailable due to the microwave failure. On 11 September 2001, the satellite connection went out of service, and an aircraft bringing a technician to repair it was challenged by Canadian Forces aircraft for violating the closure of airspace throughout North America. The community operated its own television transmitter to carry CBC television signals from satellite. The current status of this transmitter is unknown since the CBC in 2012 closed down analog transmitters it owned. The community has APTN television, as well as CHON-FM and CKRW transmitters and a community-owned transmitter picking up CBC station CHAK-AM in Inuvik. Geography Climate Old Crow has a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dfc) with mild summers and severely cold winters. Average annual temperature is . Old Crow experiences annual temperature average daily highs of in July and average daily lows of in January. Record high temperature was on August 30, 1976