Stoking the flame: Subsistence and wood energy in rural Alaska, United States

Social value of renewable energy in remote northern Indigenous communities

“…Many remote communities across northern Canada and Alaska rely on expensive, imported diesel fuel for power generation, straining the community's financial resources whilst failing to meet even basic energy needs (Bullock et al, 2020;Rakshit et al, 2019;Rezaei & Dowlatabadi, 2016;Sikka et al, 2013;. Various studies identify RE as an endogenous energy option that reduces reliance on external energy supplies and actors, thus reducing community energy costs, enhancing local energy reliability, and increasing access to essential energy services such as heating (Brewer et al, 2018;Bullock et al, 2020;Karanasios & Parker, 2018;Krupa et al, 2015;MacKay et al, 2021;Mercer et al, 2020;Rakshit et al, 2018Rakshit et al, , 2019Rezaei & Dowlatabadi, 2016;Schmidt et al, 2021;Sikka et al, 2013). In this context, we identify four primary value-generating outcomes for communities from RE, based on the sample of scholarship reviewed.…”

“…Creating Local Economic Opportunities. Likewise, RE can create new local economic opportunities such as employment and income for local suppliers, operators, and maintenance personnel: this enables self-reliance and offers new opportunities to train and retain technical skillsets in the community (Brewer et al, 2018;MacKay et al, 2021;Schmidt et al, 2021;. Coupled with more affordable energy and financial autonomy, this nurturing of new skillsets can enable entrepreneurial opportunities, which creates more local economic opportunities and gains.…”

“…RE can provide the means for communities to access energy services that are essential to live comfortably and affordably, while reducing local pollution from diesel fuels. Research from rural Alaska (Schmidt et al, 2021) and communities in Canada's boreal region, for example, show that harvesting local resources for bioenergy production helps sustain cultural practices, whilst other studies indicate that RE allows household resources normally spent on electricity for home heating to be invested instead in fuels and equipment to support hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering (Rodon et al, 2021;Schmidt et al, 2021;Tsuji et al, 2021). In the Mackenzie Delta, McMaster et al (2023) report that the prospects of secure and affordable RE can translate to improved resourcing of social services, such as schools, recreational centers, and community buildings.…”

“…Deep community involvement in RE planning, development, and even operations and maintenance are critical to establishing community support for RE initiatives (McMaster et al, 2024). Grassroots RE is more likely to align with community values that reinforce connections to land, water, and wildlife (Brewer et al, 2018), ensure the well-being of future generations (Mang-Benza & Baxter, 2021), and promote the sharing of benefits among community members (Schmidt et al, 2021). In Tsiigehtchic, Northwest Territories, for example, McMaster et al (2023) show that the vision for RE must be embedded in the community's way of life and not "imposed…from outside the community" (p. 7).…”

Renewable Energy and Community Development

“…In the Canadian context, energy transitions in Indigenous communities are expected to contribute to community self-determination and self-sufficiency [13], create local economic opportunities, promote infrastructure ownership and revenue generation [14], and connect energy generation with traditional ways of living and worldviews [15], [16]. Ultimately, energy transitions are expected to contribute to reconciliation in Canadian society.…”