Indigenous leadership and strong policy support have driven substantial progress in reducing reliance on costly diesel in remote communities over the last decade, yet fossil fuels still supply nearly half of all electricity and more than 80% of heat off-grid, finds new analysis by the Pembina Institute.
A cumulative review of clean energy deployment and diesel consumption across more than 210 remote communities in Canada between 2016 and 2025, Diesel Reduction Progress II—a follow-up to an earlier report—finds [pdf] a remarkable acceleration in community-led clean energy deployment, report author Arthur Bledsoe, a senior analyst at the Pembina Institute, says in a release.
Nearly half of remote communities in Canada now host some form of renewable energy project, displacing more than 140 million litres of diesel since 2016 in places where diesel generators had been the primary source of heat and electricity— “more diesel than all three territories use to generate electricity in an entire year.”
But as energy demand outpaces the rate at which projects are built, especially in the territories, fossil fuel use for power and heat is still increasing. In Canada’s remote communities, 46% of electricity generation and 83% of heating still comes from fossil fuels.
Indigenous communities have majority or minority stakes in more than 70% of the clean energy projects are Indigenous-owned. Canada’s remote communities now generate over 126 gigawatt-hours of clean energy each year: 35% from wind, 33% from hydropower, and 30% from solar, and renewable electricity now accounts for 7% of their total supply.
Grid-connection projects that bring off-grid communities onto provincial electricity systems have also helped cut diesel use. Connections in British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario have displaced nearly 22 million litres of diesel per year since 2016.
Meanwhile, 48 megawatts of bioheat projects have reduced heating oil consumption by approximately 11 million litres annually.
Another 90 million litres of diesel per year stand to be displaced by clean generation if all projects currently planned for remote communities are completed. But all parties must continue to “build on what’s already working,” writes Bledsoe, highlighting that the report shows significant rates of diesel reduction starting in 2018, when key federal programs kicked in.
Ottawa, in particular, needs to stay the course. “Many of the federal programs that have enabled recent progress have yet to be renewed or recapitalized,” the report warns.
The need for more clean energy deployment in Canada’s remote communities is acute, with households and businesses paying six to 10 times more for energy than the rest of Canada, Pembina notes. More than $300 million in diesel subsidies are issued every year to help offset these costs.
Continuing to support clean energy deployment also makes sense as the federal government looks to reinforce Arctic sovereignty.
“Investing in Northern infrastructure, policies, and funding that empower local and Indigenous leaders to advance community-led energy [is] the surest way to resilient, energy-secure, thriving remote communities,” Bledsoe writes.