Attributes of Socio-Technical Baseline Capacities for Energy Transition in the North: Opportunities and Challenges for Gwich'in Communities, Northwest Territories

Abstract

Today’s societies confront significant challenges concerning historic energy systems, which are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the threat of climate change. Energy systems need to be adapted to create greater resilience for the future. However, ensuring long-term success in community energy development in the North requires more than building new projects – it requires understanding the local socio-technical capacity to design, implement, and maintain renewable energy projects. Consequently, the design of community-appropriate sustainable energy systems requires a socio-technical understanding of a community’s baseline capacity for energy transition. In 2018, through the 2030 Energy Strategy: A Path to More Affordable, Secure, and Sustainable Energy in the Northwest Territories, the Government of Northwest Territories encouraged local or community level renewable energy development within the territory. Communities in the territory considering their energy futures include the Gwich’in communities of Aklavik, Fort McPherson, Inuvik, and Tsiigehtchic. The challenge, however, is that there is limited research on what a socio-technical baseline capacity profile for a remote northern Indigenous community involves. Therefore, the purpose of my research is to understand the socio-technical baseline capacity for energy transition in Gwich’in communities. The initial objective consisted of developing a conceptual framework for socio-technical baseline capacity profiles. The rapid assessment framework is conceptualized based on the energy context of rural and remote regions in the North and informed by recent energy planning grey literature and scholarship. The conceptual framework was then applied with the four partner communities, based on semi-structured interviews with community members, Gwich’in leaders, intermediary organizations, and energy sector representatives, identifying key strengths, challenges, and regional trends across the partner communities. Results identify several key capacity opportunities and challenges for energy transition, emphasizing the importance of community-to-community capacity building and long-term capacity building within the region. I conclude with a discussion of the research key findings – identifying diverging perspectives, the importance of inter-local energy networks, the intertwined nature of the attributes of the framework, and future research needs.