在北极，可靠的能源供应可能意味着生与死的区别，一个社区正在引领地球上最独特的可再生能源转型之一。

100多年来，挪威斯瓦尔巴群岛——北极附近的一群岛屿——的经济一直围绕着煤炭开采。但是燃烧煤炭使地球变暖，这导致了气候变化，现在斯瓦尔巴群岛的冰川正在融化。

挪威政府现在要求斯瓦尔巴群岛在两年内关闭最后一座煤矿。

“我们为采矿业感到骄傲，”煤炭开采公司Store Norske的首席执行官海蒂·特蕾莎·奥斯说。“与此同时，我们正在展望未来，寻找利用能源做出贡献的新途径。”

哥伦比亚广播公司新闻前往世界最北端和变暖最快的斯瓦尔巴群岛。科学家们在那里学到的东西帮助美国人了解美国正在发生的变化。随着北极变暖，它加剧了沿海海平面的上升和大气的不稳定，导致了极端天气事件的发生。

虽然斯瓦尔巴群岛打算向可再生能源过渡，但很少有数据表明，风能和太阳能在岛上严酷的冬季条件下能有多好，那里一次几个月没有阳光。

在斯瓦尔巴群岛这样一个寒冷而偏远的地方，任何离网供电的中断都可能需要将2500名居民全部疏散到600英里外的挪威大陆，乘船或乘飞机前往。

考虑到这一点，斯托尔·诺斯克与斯瓦尔巴大学中心的科学家合作，开始对世界上最北端的太阳能公园进行可靠性测试，该公园位于偏远的豪华酒店Isfjord Radio的所在地。这家旅馆靠柴油发电机运转。

奥斯说:“我们在(这项技术)如何应对我们这里恶劣的气候和天气条件方面没有太多经验。”“我们的工作是在北极气候下验证这项技术。”

Store Norske报告其360太阳能电池板的强劲业绩。在夏季，当阳光24小时照射时，太阳能电池板提供酒店运营所需的所有电力。

在春天，该公司了解到电池板可以收集直射阳光和从雪反射的光线。Ose说，虽然在漆黑的冬天仍然需要燃料，但酒店已经能够将柴油消耗量减少70%。

下一个试验场将是人口2500人的朗伊尔城，这里被认为是世界上最北端的社区。去年10月，它的发电厂停止了燃煤，转而使用更清洁但仍然很脏的柴油燃料。由于这些技术在北极地区被证明是可靠的，该镇打算在朗伊尔城的能源结构中增加可再生能源。

除了朗伊尔城，在北极圈内还有大约1500个社区，那里的人们生活在离网的地方。Store Norske计划向这些社区出售其可再生能源解决方案，其中包括加拿大和阿拉斯加的定居点。

参与该项目的斯瓦尔巴大学中心气象学家安娜Sj?blom说:“如果你把所有这1500个(社区)放在一起，那么你就有了一个真正具有影响力的大项目。”

除了可再生能源，朗伊尔城也是斯托尔·诺斯克和斯瓦尔巴大学中心开发新技术的地方，以帮助预测对社区福祉的另一个威胁——雪崩。

While winters are very cold, snowfall is generally light. But in January of 2015, a major storm hammered the island with blinding wind and snow. More than 16 feet fell in about 12 hours in some spots.

These rare conditions triggered an avalanche on one of the town's mountains — the first to ever do serious damage to Longyearbyen. The snow ripped homes off their foundations and left them in a pile. Two people died, including a young girl.

"I knew the girl," Line Nagell Ylvis?ker, Editor of the Svalbard Post newspaper, remembered. "She went to kindergarten with my daughter. So, it was really close and hard to understand that it happened."

Since that fatal avalanche, Martin Indreiten with the Artic Safety Center at the University Centre in Svalbard, has led the effort to defend the community against the threat of future avalanches.

Indreiten said the risk of an avalanche has always been reliably highest in the spring, but as Svalbard warms, now they can happen at other times of the year, as well.

"It's the uncertainty," Indreiten said. "You don't know,"

Norway spent $25 million to build a dam at the bottom of the mountain to stop tumbling snow and protect the town. Higher up on the mountain, it built avalanche fences that help keep the snow from sliding down.

Indreiten designed an early-warning system that would give people time to evacuate. Working with the Norwegian mobile company Telenor, Indreiten and his colleagues developed the low-cost snow senor.

The devices are installed in remote locations. They bounce a beam off the snow to measure its depth and sends back hundreds of measurements each day. Each device can last up to 10 years on a single battery and costs just $600.

"We are getting information from the places we want to get information, and the cost is so low that many can use it," said Indreiten.

Avalanches are a problem in communities around the world. In the U.S. each winter, 25 to 30 people die in avalanches, mostly in national forests, according to the National Avalanche Center.

Indreiten hopes the new technology can be useful worldwide. It has already been installed in another avalanche-prone community on mainland Norway.

"If you have better tools to do forecasting, then we could move people out of harm's way when it's necessary to do it," Indreiten said.

Take an adventure to Svalbard, Norway in this special interactive web page and learn how climate change is impacting communities across our country.

Martin Indreiten collaborated on an early warning system to protect the community of Longyearbyen from the threats of future avalanches. His team at the Arctic Safety Center built low-cost, snow depth sensors that are now deployed on the steep slopes around town. Each device sends back hundreds of measurements a day, giving safety managers better insights into avalanche risk and when to issue evacuation orders. Indreiten believes avalanche-prone communities around the world will benefit from the technology developed on Svalbard.