Australia’s story of the energy transition is most visible in the uptake of large-scale solar and wind farms or now prolific rooftop solar. Less visible is the role of renewable energy in efforts to reinstate life and land to Australia’s Indigenous peoples.

This paper tells the story of off-grid remote renewable energy rollouts in Indigenous communities in Northern Australia.

While the analysis is specific to Australia, it has broader lessons about incorporating Indigenous governance approaches into renewable energy rollouts so that Indigenous communities in financially constrained contexts share in the intended benefit of installed electricity systems.

Using energy sociotechnical imaginaries and energy justice, the paper explores the emergence, impact and contemporary legacy of Bushlight (2002–2013), a government funded renewable energy program delivered by an Indigenous-led non-profit organisation.

Bushlight was part of Australia’s early efforts to build its renewable energy sector, operating with a dual mandate of decarbonisation and community development in Indigenous Homelands communities.

The analysis of sociotechnical imaginaries explains how collectives come together to anticipate and address distributional justice issues through policy development and how these collectives and their vision for renewable energy evolve through implementation.

Tracing how these imaginaries extend into the present highlights the influence of broader socio-political dynamics shaping Indigenous-settler-colonial relations.

The paper’s findings have important implications for decolonisation, supporting Indigenous people to live on and care for Country while retaining their right to essential services.

This paper serves as a reminder that financial constraints can manifest unevenly within as well as between geopolitical segments. Governance approaches need to reflect this internal unevenness and can assist in addressing this unevenness through renewable energy rollouts.

Secondly, this case highlights the influence of governance and regulation in supporting equitable private sector delivery and operation of renewable energy power systems in complex and financially constrained contexts within high income national contexts. This serves as a reminder for donors, policy makers and private sector of the risks that accompany uncritically replicating energy supply arrangements in high income countries, often adopted by multi-lateral finance institutions and donors in the global south.

Thirdly, this paper reflects on energy policy and implementation as a force for supporting or weakening Citizen-State relations.

Finally, this paper provides an account of electrification through renewable energy rollouts that centred on Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies. In doing so, this contributes to a broader understanding of electrification beyond Atlantic-centred “global” histories.

Author: Anna Cain, Australian National University, College of Engineering and Computing and Cybernetics, ACT, Australia, published online 25 January 2024.

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The combination of First Nations partnership, governance and equity is unequivocally the factor that unlocks positive impacts for First Nations communities and projects.

Despite significant energy justice issues, there is great opportunity for First Nations to play a leading role in the clean energy industry in Queensland, particularly given the scale of projects proposed.

In a settler colonial context like Canada, renewable energy transitions and projects will take place on or near Indigenous traditional territories.

In the emerging body of knowledge around Indigenous community involvement in renewable energy the role of the Indigenous economic development corporation (EDCs), a uniquely Indigenous legal form has had little attention.

Although a range of governance structures that could support renewable energy projects exist; what has not been explored are which legal forms tend to employ specific governance structures.

Employing a national dataset, surveys and interviews, this study assesses the experience and involvement of Indigenous EDCs as a legal form in renewable energy projects, the governance structures EDCs employ, and how these governance structures respond to the needs for self-determination and decision-making power of Indigenous communities.

The findings show that at least 26 EDCs are involved in renewable energy projects, that EDCs tend to use economic instruments, while political organizations, (e.g., Band Council), tend to use political instruments, such as impact and benefit agreements (IBAs).

Interviewed and surveyed EDCs agreed that ownership of a project is more beneficial than IBAs that tend to be short lived. Although full ownership denotes control over a project, which aligns with UNDRIP, the desired level of ownership varies depending on a variety of factors, such as comfort with risk and how provincial context affects preferred ownership structures.

Authors: Katarina Savic, Christina E. Hoicka, 'Indigenous legal forms and governance structures in renewable energy: Assessing the role and perspectives of First Nations economic development corporations', Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 101, 2023

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Thanks for use of the photo Keshav Rajasekar on Unsplash

Enabling and empowering First Nations to play a key and central role in Australia’s renewable energy transition goes beyond just social licence issues.

This paper was prepared to support conversations at the Mparntwe (Alice Springs) roundtable for the First Nations Clean Energy Strategy. The Northern Territory has some of the strongest solar radiation in the world and there is clearly much potential to develop clean energy projects on First Nations titled lands. 

Read the paper here

Special thanks to Christian Bass for use of the photo.

Here you'll find our best practice Network guides available for download.

One way First Nations can participate in and benefit economically from clean energy is to own equity in projects.

This guide is designed to support First Nations communities review their participation in clean energy projects.

It highlights the benefits of First Nations engagement in a clean energy project, an overview of equity, what equity participation involves, and the potential risks and benefits for First Nations groups seeking to hold equity in projects.

It also unpacks different forms of equity participation for First Nations considering co-investing in clean energy projects with developers.

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Next week, community members in the Pilbara will be asked for their input into a plan for First Nations people to play a central role in the transition to renewable energy.

There is a massive global and domestic renewables energy transition underway that is driving generational shifts in energy systems. First Nations people can, and should benefit from this revolution, whether from small community-based projects, to large scale, export-focused initiatives.

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