A 2020 report by national not-for-profit organization Indigenous Clean Energy Social Enterprise identified 197 medium-to-large renewable energy generating projects with Indigenous involvement.
CALGARY - On a wintry day last November, Daphne Kay looked up at an expanse of gleaming solar panels located on Cowessess First Nation reserve land just east of Reginaand cried.
Cowessess’ $21-million Awasis solar project connects to Saskatchewan’s electricity grid and is capable of powering 2,500 homes annually, on average. Over its 35-year estimatedlife, the solar farm is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 350,000 tonnes — in total, equivalent to the emissions of over 70,000 gas-powered cars driven for one year.
While the group’s 2023 data has not yet been released publicly, executive director Chris Henderson said many additional projects have come online in the last two-and-a-half years — everything from solar and wind to hydro to geothermal. Experts have said such a goal will require tens of billions of dollars in public and private investment, and it seems clear that Indigenous communities — simply by nature of being landowners and treaty rights owners — are poised to reap a significant amount of that economic benefit.
Indigenous communities are also asserting that right, increasingly seeking to get involved in clean energy projects as full owners. Cowessess, for example, owns 95 per cent of the Awasis solar project with the opportunity to become full owners after five years. Kay said it was able to become involved because of a First Nations Opportunity Agreement between the First Nations Power Authority and SaskPower, the provincial utility.
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