Green Energy Futures presents, in collaboration with the Alberta Emerald Foundation, Part III of the Emerald Series: conversations with Alberta Emerald Award winners from the Emerald Podcast series What On Earth Can We Do?

By David Dodge and Kay Rollans

The Indigenous Electricity Technical Working Group may not sound very exciting, but the group helped the previous government develop programs that got numerous indigenous groups involved in an ownership role with some very large renewable energy projects.

And for this, they picked up an Emerald Award last year.

Andres Filella, Senior Manager of Environment for the Métis Nation of Alberta and a consultant with the group, said the group addressed barriers to Indigenous engagement in green energy. “It was intended to be open to indigenous communities and governments as a space for them to learn about the renewable energy markets and opportunity.”

Things were different in 2017, when Alberta’s then-NDP government launched the Renewable Energy Program (REP), a competitive bid program aimed at developing large-scale renewable energy projects throughout the province.

The program was created to help fulfill the then government’s promise to generate 30 per cent of Alberta’s electricity—or about 5,000 megawatts—through renewables by 2030, and it was well on its way. Before the new UCP government defunded it, REP held three rounds of competition, approving nine projects that, when finished, will add 1,360 megawatts of capacity to the grid.

The NDP set up the Indigenous Electricity Technical Working Group (IETWG) to support greater involvement of indigenous communities in the energy sector.

Indigenous partnership “a good deal” for Albertans

“I think the biggest thing that came out of this was the Renewable Energy Program round two,” said Filella. REP2 required all proposed projects to be at least 25 per cent Indigenous-owned.

“Nine developers in partnership with indigenous community sent applications and there was a total of three successful projects with Potentia Renewables, Capstone, and EDF Renewables,” said Filella.

The approved projects partnered with the Sawridge First Nation, Blood-Kainai First Nation, and Paul First Nation. When finished, the projects will produce 360 megawatts of wind power — 60 megawatts more than expected, and enough to power over 150,000 homes. And this was done while securing some of the cheapest prices for electricity in history, about 3.8 cents/kWh.

Wind some of the cheapest electricity in the world

Investing in green energy projects like these just makes economic sense, says Filella. “It is cheaper and it can provide jobs and investors are pouring their money there. So we should do it because otherwise we’re going to be left behind.”

Of the REP2 wind farms, Filella reported that “it was cheaper to produce wind power than it was to install a gas power plant.” The price is also right for Alberta consumers. At 3.8 cents per kilowatt-hour, the electricity produced by the REP2 projects is, Filella said, “some of the cheapest electricity in the world.”

“You can actually meet this incredible goal of partnership for indigenous peoples and make it a good deal for people in Alberta,” said Filella.

UCP budget scraps green energy funding

Despite the obvious pluses, both economic and environmental, of green energy in Alberta, the UCP has been stripping funding from green energy since it took office in April 2019.

The 2019 budget promised to cut $100 million from climate-related initiatives in the province, including $17 million from Indigenous partnership initiatives. $80 million has meanwhile been earmarked for the UCP’s Canada Energy Centre, a pro-oil thinktank, all while losing $1.1 billion in revenue by scrapping the carbon tax. This year’s budget shows a similar trend.

Among the defunded programs are the Renewable Electricity Program, the Residential and Commercial Solar Program, and the Community Generation Capacity Building Program (another program that the IETWG helped to develop). The IETWG itself hasn’t met since June 2019.

Still, Filella is hopeful. “Canada is leading. It’s one of the leaders in the world in renewable energy,” he says. But while Canada’s electricity as a whole is about 60 per cent hydropower, Alberta, until recently, relied on coal for almost half of its energy production.

Filella admits Alberta is lagging behind, but he sees so much potential. “we have here—and Saskatchewan by the way as well has—the best solar and resource in all of Canada and the best wind resource in all of Canada.”

One way or another, Filella says the future of energy is renewable. “My hope is that it is renewable within the next 10 years and not within the next 50 years.”

The Indigenous Electricity Technical Working Group was created in 2017, in partnership with the then-NDP Government of Alberta, to develop policy and programs that support Indigenous involvement and ownership in renewable energy in Alberta. The group won an Emerald Award in 2019 for their work. Keep your eyes open this spring for this year’s award winners. Checkout the Emerald Foundation’s podcast, What on Earth Can We Do? This story was based on episode 4, Renewable Energy.