{"id":193573,"date":"2021-03-04T02:27:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T23:27:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/the-long-road-to-clean-power-for-first-nations-communities\/"},"modified":"2021-03-04T02:27:03","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T23:27:03","slug":"the-long-road-to-clean-power-for-first-nations-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/the-long-road-to-clean-power-for-first-nations-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"#The long road to clean power for First Nations communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#The long road to clean power for First Nations communities<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n Indigenous communities in oil sands country are taking the first steps to wean themselves off fossil-fuelled electricity. But even those who’ve made inroads are shying away from diesel-free ambition.\n <\/div>\n
\n The tanker trucks normally come by the dozen over the winter road from Fort McMurray, Alta., during the few weeks the ice can hold their weight. They make the 4\u00bd-hour northbound trek laden with the same fossil fuel they burn\u2014stuff that Fort Chipewyan, Alta., has long used to generate its electricity. But this summer, the 800-resident hamlet downstream from Alberta\u2019s oil sands expects to shutter its diesel plant for the first time, and instead power its lights and TVs through the warm season with solar energy.<\/p>\n

The project was several years in the making, a partnership between local Dene, Cree and M\u00e9tis leaders using $7.8 million in federal and provincial grants. The largest solar field of its kind in Canada was a huge undertaking: 5,760 photovoltaic panels transported across that same ice road, over myriad lakes, bogs and rivers. It will yield Fort Chip huge greenhouse gas and fuel savings, eliminating the need for 25 annual diesel tanker trip<\/a>s. But the community will still need to burn 75 truckloads of petroleum each year.<\/p>\n

There are about 170 remote (and mostly Indigenous) northern communities across Canada\u2019s provinces and territories, the vast majority off the main power grids and reliant on diesel\u2014a dirty, spill-prone and archaic source by 21st-century standards. Collectively, they burn through several truckloads every day. Many are going the route of Fort Chip and pursuing renewable energy alternatives, with more than a half-billion federal dollars committed to the endeavour since the Trudeau Liberals took office. They pledged last campaign to get all Indigenous communities off diesel by 2030. But as the massive effort to cut Fort Chip\u2019s diesel use by one-quarter shows, there\u2019s a dauntingly long distance from here to there\u2014and even communities that have made inroads are shying away from the diesel-free ambition. \u201cIn a perfect world, it\u2019s definitely something to aspire to,\u201d says Jason Schulz, who led the solar project for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation. \u201cBut realistically, I don\u2019t know if it will ever come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few doubt the merits of moving northern hamlets and villages off diesel, and cutting carbon emissions is just the start. It\u2019s a costly fuel to burn in large quantities. The generators\u2014essentially, large internal combustion engines\u2014use old technology<\/a> and are costly to maintain. At the same time, the move to local sources of wind, hydro or solar power increases the autonomy of Indigenous communities while renewing traditional connections to their natural surroundings. \u201cWe work with the sun, we work with the wind, we work with Mother Nature and we work with the water,\u201d Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam said at a ceremony to mark the solar development\u2019s completion. \u201cFor the children of the future, to give them a better life, a cleaner life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Northern leaders are also eager to contribute to the fight against climate change because their communities are particularly vulnerable to its ravages. The ice roads are a case in point, as over time their operable seasons have shortened from a few months to a few weeks. This winter, the Fort Chipewyan Winter Road opened later than scheduled, on Dec. 31, before warm weather forced it closed on Jan. 13, before the annual diesel shipment arrived. The municipality hired a specialized contractor to shore up the river crossings in hopes of offering a few extra trucking weeks in February, saving the huge cost of importing fuel by barge or plane.<\/p>\n

The same problems afflict Deline, N.W.T. The ice road across Great Bear Lake may offer 30 days of commercial transport in a decent year, but there were only 25 last season. \u201cWe want to be a part of having a healthy environment, of making sure these issues are addressed even in a small community like Deline,\u201d says Leeroy Andre, the\u00a0\u0241ek\u2019waht\u0131\u0328d\u01dd\u0301 (or high leader) of the Deline Got\u2019ine Government. The community, 538 km northwest of Yellowknife, installed solar panels on the government-owned hotel\u2019s roof, and recently got a $500,000 federal grant\u00a0 to develop a bigger system. Deline also intends to deploy a system that burns wood pellets\u2014still a carbon power source, but one that makes use of waste material from Alberta sawmills.<\/p>\n

The number of renewable energy projects across the remote North doubled between 2015 and 2020, notes a report from the Pembina Institute think tank, which has collaborated with Ottawa on off-diesel initiatives. On an annual basis, that\u2019s reduced diesel consumption by about 12 million litres\u2014not counting the 800,000 Fort Chip can now shed\u2014with about 225 million to go. That\u2019s just for electricity; the communities burn about twice as much for heating.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Ottawa committed $220 million over six years for clean energy for rural and remote communities, and in December pledged another $300 million, while some provinces and territories have kicked in with their own programs. \u201cBut to get to 100 per cent is difficult,\u201d says Dave Lovekin, director of Pembina\u2019s renewables in remote communities program. While wind and solar expansions can fairly easily displace about 30 to 50 per cent of diesel, he says, further improvement to battery storage and base-load power requirements will necessitate more dramatic upgrades. Northern winters, after all, offer little sunshine\u2014in some places none at all.<\/p>\n

The increased spending will help Ottawa pursue its \u201cextremely challenging\u201d goal, Lovekin says. But the wording of the feds\u2019 latest commitment leaves more wiggle room than the Liberals\u2019 2019 platform. It states only that diesel-reliant communities will \u201chave the opportunity to be powered by clean, reliable energy by 2030\u201d\u2014language intended, perhaps, to make it sound like less of a top-down federal \u201cdeliverable\u201d than, say, the unfulfilled promise to get all First Nations off boil-water advisories within five years.<\/p>\n\n

This article app<\/a>ears in print in the March 2021 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s magazine with the headline, \u201cThe long road to clean power.\u201d Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here<\/a>.<\/em>
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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#The long road to clean power for First Nations communities” Indigenous communities in oil sands country are taking the first steps to wean themselves off fossil-fuelled electricity. But even those who’ve made inroads are shying away from diesel-free ambition. The tanker trucks normally come by the dozen over the winter road from Fort McMurray, Alta.,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":193574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/FORT-CHIPEWYAN-SOLAR-MARKUSOFF-FEB03-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}