Workers from Indigenous-owned W Dusk Energy Group install solar panels in the remote community of West Moberly First Nations, B.C.Thomas Issac-Came/The Globe and Mail
In the remote northeastern B.C. community of West Moberly First Nations, blackouts are common and hydro bills are higher than average, says Chief Roland Willson. The energy challenges are compounded by a lack of natural-gas access for the village of 350 people – 80 of whom live on reserve.
“We run primarily off wood and electric heat for heating,” he says. “We had families that couldn’t make their mortgage or rent payments because the hydro bills were so high.”
Against the backdrop of sky-high bills and a 10-year fight against BC Hydro’s controversial $16-billion Site C dam on the Peace River within their traditional territory, the community decided it was time to generate energy with renewable sources.
“We started looking at ground-mounted solar arrays and talking to the community about whether or not we could do this, and hopefully bring down the cost of hydro bills,” Chief Willson says. There was also a desire to make a statement about energy sovereignty.
“We’re trying to show that every community should have a plan: identify what energy requirements are, and identify opportunities of generating that energy. We’re trying to show that we don’t have to depend on hydro for their power.”
West Moberly First Nations partnered with W Dusk Energy Group, an Indigenous-owned renewable energy consultancy and developer. President and CEO David Isaac says the company recently installed solar-powered systems in every household.
“Communities like West Moberly are perfect examples and replicable models to show across Turtle Island [Canada],” Mr. Isaac says.
He says he’s frequently “shocked” by how many remote communities experience rolling blackouts. “This is just the norm for them… they take having this many power outages as just an inconvenience,” he says. “But it’s very obviously unacceptable.”
According to data from the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), there are 178 remote Indigenous and northern communities in Canada not connected to the North American electricity grid or natural gas infrastructure. Very few have all-year road access and more than half are fly-in only.
For many, power is supplied through diesel generators. It’s a reliable fuel source but given the remoteness of these communities, it’s expensive to purchase and transport. A 2021 report from the WWF says even with subsidies, the energy prices customers pay in remote, diesel-reliant communities are six to 10 times higher than in the rest of Canada.
An increasing number of remote, grid-connected communities with high hydro bills are looking at renewable energy to offset their costs.
The fly-in community of Old Crow, Yukon subsisted on quarterly diesel deliveries that it stored in above-ground tanks until 2022, when it switched on a solar farm. The community of 221 people estimates the project, which includes 940 kilowatts of solar modules and battery storage, will reduce diesel demand by 190,000 litres annually.
According to CER statistics, renewable energy projects on traditional Indigenous territory or reserve lands quadrupled from 2009 to 2020. Of the active projects, 21 per cent are solar and 17 per cent are wind projects.
Thomas Stringer, an assistant professor in industrial engineering at Polytechnique Montréal and author of the paper Decarbonizing Canada’s remote microgrids, says his research illustrated that the country’s remote communities could inexpensively be transitioned to renewable energy.
But self-reliance on renewables brings challenges, Mr. Stringer says. “They don’t produce electricity 24 hours a day.” Areas north of the Arctic Circle have little to no access to sun in the winter. “That’s why to this day there’s no full remote, off-grid community that relies 100 per cent on renewable energy,” he adds.
“If you don’t have electricity, you don’t have any grid flexibility, so you really need a reliable power source. These communities often have elderly people who need medical equipment – that could be a life or death situation.”
Those relying on electricity for heat face similar challenges. “Frankly, it’s very complicated for the inhabitants there that already have a quality of life that is sometimes compromised and very expensive,” Mr. Stringer says.
But W Dusk Energy’s Group’s Mr. Isaac adds that costs are coming down for producing renewable energy and storing that energy for times of intermittency. For Indigenous communities such as West Moberly First Nations, the stakes for energy sovereignty are high.
“When you’re looking at the history of Indigenous peoples and the history of Canada, colonization is really entwined with the energy sector, notably fossil-fuel extraction and large hydroelectric dams,” Mr. Isaac says. “To decarbonize is to decolonize.”