The change to renewable energy in Canada isn’t happening in boardrooms or policy papers. It’s happening in the lives of grid operators who have to deal with reservoirs that are running dry, farmers who are keeping track of changing wind patterns, and Indigenous communities that are building energy systems that meet their power needs and protect their sovereignty.
The news is all about gigawatts and government announcements, but the real story is about the people who are adapting, coming up with new ideas, and getting stronger on the ground. This series looks at what Canada’s renewable reality really looks like from the point of view of the people who live it.
More Than Just the Technology Story
Most news stories about the energy transition treat renewable technologies as if they are plug-and-play solutions that work the same way everywhere. The truth is more complicated. Solar panels don’t work as well when there are heat domes over the Prairie. Changes in wind patterns are making long-held meteorological ideas harder to believe. Hydroelectric systems are dealing with droughts like they’ve never seen before, which is forcing utilities and Indigenous Nations to work together in new ways.
These aren’t technical problems that need engineering fixes; they’re problems that people face that need community solutions, the use of traditional knowledge, and new ways of governing that most policy frameworks haven’t thought of yet.
The Important Voices
Climate Shift focuses on the knowledge of people whose jobs depend on knowing about the environment. These include farmers who have seen weather patterns change over generations, wind technicians who are learning more about atmospheric science, utility workers who put their lives on the line during wildfire seasons, and Indigenous leaders who are claiming co-stewardship over regional energy systems.
Their observations confirm climate models and show ways to adapt that academic research often misses. These aren’t just stories; they’re facts from Canada’s most experienced environmental observers.
What We’re Looking Into
Human Infrastructure: The community’s abilities, relationships, and knowledge systems that decide if renewable energy projects will work or not. Technology works when people know how to use it, keep it up to date, and make it work with their current systems and values.
Climate Adaptation in Real Time: How extreme weather events are changing how utilities work and making it necessary for them to work together in new ways with communities and governments. The heat dome in 2021, the wildfire season in 2023, and the ongoing drought are not things that will happen in the future; they are things that are happening right now.
Knowledge Integration: How traditional ecological knowledge, farmer observations, and community experience help with the development of renewable energy in ways that are different from but often better than formal technical assessments.
Ownership and Governance: Why energy projects that are run by the community always have better environmental results, more support from the community, and more stable operations than projects that are forced on the community from the outside.
Economic Reality: The real costs and benefits of renewable energy systems when looked at from the point of view of communities that take into account job creation, skill development, energy security, and environmental quality.
Why This Is Important Now
Canada promised to have no emissions by 2050 and a clean electricity grid by 2035. To reach these goals, we need more than just using renewable technologies. We also need to build the human infrastructure needed to run, fix, and adapt these systems as the climate changes.
The communities in this series aren’t waiting for help from the federal government or the provinces. They’re making their energy systems more resilient because they need to to stay alive. The new ideas, partnerships, and ways of running things that they come up with will be used as models for the energy systems that all Canadians will need in the future.
The Series Ahead
Through the stories of people who are most affected, we’ll look at how climate change is changing Canada’s energy landscape in more than six articles.
- Grid operators in charge of power systems when the weather is very bad
- Communities are renegotiating how water is managed because drought is making hydroelectric operations harder.
- Firefighters and utility workers working together to deal with threats of wildfires
- Prairie homeowners finding out what solar technology can and can’t do in the real world
- Farmers and technicians writing down how changing wind patterns affect plans for renewable energy
- Indigenous and rural communities are leading the way in creating energy systems that can withstand climate change.
Each story shows that Canada’s renewable energy future depends less on putting technology to use and more on the relationships, knowledge, and governance systems that are needed to make that technology work for communities in changing environmental conditions.
The Human Energy Transition
Climate change isn’t just changing the weather in Canada; it’s also changing the way people work together to keep energy systems running. Switching to renewable energy means more than just replacing fossil fuel infrastructure with clean technologies. It means rebuilding the social infrastructure that links communities to their energy systems.
The people in Climate Shift are doing just that. They’re not just using renewable technologies; they’re also building the community capacity, collaborative governance, and integrated knowledge systems that will decide whether Canada’s energy transition makes the country stronger or weaker.
The work they do today will determine whether Canada’s future in renewable energy benefits all communities or leaves some behind. These aren’t feel-good stories about early adopters; they’re important information about what really makes renewable energy systems work in Canada.
Climate Shift: Canada’s Renewable Reality examines the human side of energy transition through the experiences of communities, workers, and leaders building resilient energy systems. Resource Works believes Canada’s energy future depends on understanding these ground-level realities as much as policy frameworks and technology specifications.
