solar and wind power

A good sized area to the south of Francois Lake (mid-point between Prince George and Prince Rupert on a map) has never had power. Wind has always been unpredictable and virtually non-existent during the winter.

Several of the places I've been to have used solar power with storage batteries in various configurations. Until I had actually seen it, I had always been somewhat skeptical about the use of solar power in northern areas, but it's clearly sufficient to operate electric fences, pumps, and appliances. I can't really give any specifics on the systems in use as some of them were already old when I saw them in the late 90's. I'm sure many of them have been upgraded since then. Some people who are on-grid have a portable generator for supplemental power when needed because when the power goes out, it can be out for up to a week at a time.

I'm hoping to seriously get into solar systems next year sometime. Up until now, I've had storage batteries to run pumps and appliances when the power went out.

Is your well pump 120V or 240V?

I started looking into solar power and was very dismayed at the cost.

One thing the solar experts I consulted with were clear about was that I'd have to get a propane fridge and stove as well as washer, dryer and freezer, (that is if I wanted all those appliances). They said it just wasn't feasible to produce that much power for those major items.

There's some pretty amazing hand well pumps on the internet. Flo-Jack Pumps, Bison Pumps and Simple Pumps all come to mind. If I ever git me to the country, I'll have one of them for backup.

I often wonder what cost would be if a group collectively placed a large shipping order directly from the manufacturers and arranged their own distribution and then carefully assembled the array themselves . It certainly is not impossible . My friends have back up generators and a propane refrigerator and run the washing machine and their well pump off solar and other household appliances sparingly , they do not have a big set up and have to be careful and fairly frugal how they time power use . They do not have a freezer nor a dryer .
If you have to finance the acquisition you have to look at the rate of the opportunity cost against the rate the grid fed utilities will rise in cost and while I feel it gives you some level of security having control of your own system , I know when things break down, you have costs to fix them too.

Propane appliances are a great option if you can have it delivered in bulk, stores forever. They're expensive but they're usually "buy once, cry once" purchases.
As for water, pump it above your site to a holding tank when you have power, gravity does the rest. Bury the tank for freeze protection.

consider a ram pump a lot of great video's online as well as how to build's if your into that kind of stuff. might or might not work. needs a continuous flow and drop of water supply to function, I like to think of spring in a hill side, or a small stream you can build a small dam across. But doesn't use any power, just turns high volume low pressure water into higher pressure lower volume, with this idea it is possible to not use any power or gas and yet pump water much higher then it's original source using only two valves. some pumps can take 4 feet of drop to the pump to pump up to 20 feet high. an interesting little gizmo and a bit of knowledge even if it doesn't happen to work in your particular area. I would like to to build one just for the sake of building one.