The U of S led project is intended to continue for seven years. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

clean power

Northern communities selected for U of S renewable energy project

Jul 19, 2019 | 5:38 PM

Deschambeault Lake and Pelican Narrows are part of an $8.8 million international partnership project to explore how northern residents can achieve energy independence, as well as benefit economically and socially by developing renewable energy.

The project is being led by two University of Saskatchewan researchers including Bram Noble, a professor of geography and planning, along with School of Environment and Sustainability professor and Fulbright scholar Greg Poelzer. According to the U of S, there are more than 250 northern and Indigenous communities in Canada of which many are dependent on diesel generators or on an electrical grid highly vulnerable to storms.

“It’s truly working together in identifying the kind of questions we need to ask around energy usage, access and security,” Poelzer said. “What are the challenges and what are the needs around energy? If we had more clean and local energy, what kind of economic opportunities and social benefits could come from that? We’re partners with this on the community level.”

In terms of finding solutions to reach energy independence, participants in the project will work with communities from Alaska, Norway and Sweden. Poelzer said other communities in those regions are more advanced than Canada when it comes to renewable energy and there’s a lot that can be learned from their trials and errors. Those international communities also have decades of experience in policy, development, use, governance and management of renewable power.

The project began this summer and is intended to run for seven years. It will involve training 83 highly-qualified personnel who will be able to create business plans and carry them out into fruition. Other communities in Canada selected for the project are four Gwich’in Tribal Council communities in the Northwest Territories, and Churchill and York Factory First Nation in Manitoba.

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“We want to basically build a value proposition with the business case for investment in renewable energy on the community level,” Poelzer said. “The federal government has rolled out about $1 billion on the table for northern and Indigenous and remote communities. So, if you have the capacity and the educational training and background to do the business plan, it’s going to advance those communities.”

Saskatchewan Polytechnic, the U of S and Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation also have a three-way agreement on research and capacity building. Poelzer hopes in time these agreements can be expanded to include communities in the Athabasca Basin, for example.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno