Northern, Indigenous, Rural, and Remote Communities

Bringing a holistic approach to localized energy challenges

Our areas of focus

Nearly three quarters of Canada’s 250 or so remote communities currently rely on diesel generators to produce their electricity. Even larger amounts of fossil fuels are used to meet space heating and domestic hot water requirements. Furthermore, acquiring, transporting and storing fuels in remote locations is very expensive and supply chains may be unreliable, depending on logistical constraints.

The shift to renewable energy is becoming of increasing concern to northern and remote communities in Canada. Reliance on fossil fuels for heat and power brings about important local resilience, health and environmental issues for Canadians residing in these communities. Despite some availability of renewable resources, supportive policies and programs, and research on the potential for integration of renewable, bioenergy and storage technologies, there is a need for careful and comprehensive assessment of renewable energy and long-term storage technologies and empirical data on the renewable technologies collected under real life conditions.

CanmetENERGY Ottawa is taking a holistic approach to address these challenges and has designed this research program to include the identification and analysis of diesel reduction options in Northern, Indigenous, rural and remote communities in Canada through distinct approaches:

• improving energy security while reducing diesel dependence and energy costs: providing analysis to support local decision making and supporting programs and policies.
• incorporating renewable energy, bioenergy and energy storage: providing technical assessments of renewable energy resources and storage potential in communities, and providing advice to accelerate the implementation and adoption of renewable energy technologies.
• advancing affordable, resilient, and energy-efficient housing and buildings: assisting territorial governments, municipalities and Indigenous organizations to achieve their efficiency targets by providing cost and technical analyses, while also informing the development of more stringent building codes, developing guidelines for builders, and supporting pilot projects and related programs.

Projects at CanmetENERGY in Ottawa

In pursuit of these focus areas, CanmetENERGY Ottawa is currently involved in the following projects:

Affordable, resilient and energy efficient housing and buildings for remote communities

Assessment of advanced and optimized renewable and bio-based systems, to reduce diesel dependency and energy costs, and improve energy security in remote communities

Technology testing to improve reliability and accessibility of renewable and bio-based energy systems in remote communities

Geothermal for northern and remote communities

Cost-effective and robust solar hot water systems for northern, indigenous, rural and remote communities

Featured item

Remotely Powerful – in Canadian Biomass Magazine

Remotely Powerful, co-authored by Research Scientist Sebnem Madrali, is the first of four articles in Canadian Biomass Magazine summarizing interviews with nine remote and rural communities who installed biomass energy systems. It outlines motivations and success factors, while the following three articles focus on the most critical factors for bioenergy projects in the north: technology, fuel supply chain, and capacity building.

Read "Remotely Powerful"