'20 years of economic prosperity': Cowessess First Nation launches Awasis Solar Project

The Awasis Solar Project is now operating east of Regina after more than one year of construction.

The 10 megawatt facility is owned primarily by Cowessess First Nation.

“For other First Nations, this is attainable. What Cowessess is doing today, you can do,” Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme said.

“Just make sure you are at the table knowing your values and empowering the specialists to help lead a project of this nature to what we know you’re capable of.”

Now that it is online, Awasis will provide clean energy to the provincial power grid.

It’s a project the leaders of Cowessess hope to see benefit the entire community in the years to come.

Cowessess First Nation currently owns 95 per cent of Awasis, with Elemental Energy owning the remaining five per cent.

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After five years of operating, Chief Delorme said Cowessess will buy the remaining share.

“In year six and on, we will use the revenue and profit off this project to make sure we reinvest in our renewable energy projects,” Delorme said.

“Secondly, some of the profit made will go to unfunded areas. Language, family, culture off and on reserve. This is going to be a huge opportunity for us to not only own it, but to use the profit in areas that will benefit us even more.”

For the next 20 years, SaskPower will purchase all of the power produced at Awasis as part of a signed deal.

“This project is going to bring 20 years of economic prosperity,” Delorme said.

On average, SaskPower said the facility will produce enough power to run 2,500 homes per year.

For the Government of Saskatchewan, supporting Awasis means supporting TRC Call to Action 92, which focuses on economic reconciliation.

“I can imagine nothing better than a project like this to try and work together, promote our province, to promote the future of First Nations people and all of us as Treaty people,” Don Morgan, the minister responsible for SaskPower, said.

The federal government provided $18.5 million to Awasis. Jonathan Wilkinson, the minister of natural resources, said its projects like this that will make a difference in the fight against climate change.

“We need to be thinking about how we build more renewable energy and non-emitting sources of energy into our grids. It’s going to be critical, not only to achieve our climate goals but also a competitive economy going forward,” Wilkinson said.

As for the project’s name, Chief Delorme said it’s a tribute to past generations.

“Our last hereditary chief, his name was Littlechild. In Cree, it’s pronounced ‘Awasis,’” Delorme said.

“Awasis Solar is to honour our last hereditary chief of Cowessess First Nation who agreed to treaty, which led us to this relationship today.”