A delegation from the Wet'suwet'en First Nation of British Columbia, Canada, will visit southern Gran Canaria this November to see firsthand the wind and solar farms operated by Ecoener in the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. The visit reinforces a groundbreaking partnership between the Spanish group and the Canadian Indigenous communities to promote clean energy projects on both sides of the Atlantic.
The meeting comes after months of cooperation. Ecoener—a Galician company with more than 35 years of experience in renewable energy—recently signed an agreement with the Wet'suwet'en Nation to develop wind and solar projects in British Columbia, where the company is already involved, along with the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation, in a 140 MW wind farm.
Furthermore, the Wet'suwet'en community will co-own a $6.000 billion Canadian-funded transmission line, promoted by the Government of British Columbia and shared among several First Nations, marking a milestone in Indigenous energy sovereignty. “The winds of change are blowing, and we are happy to say they are blowing in the right direction,” declared Chief Elgin Cutler during his meeting in Madrid with the Canadian Ambassador to Spain, Jeffrey Marder. The Canadian delegation arrived in Spain over the weekend, with stops in Madrid and Ourense, where they visited the Cierves, Arnoia, and Penada hydroelectric plants, before traveling to southern Gran Canaria, considered by Ecoener to be a natural laboratory for the integration of renewable energy.
In San Bartolomé de Tirajana, representatives of the Wet'suwet'en Nation will learn about the company's hybrid wind and photovoltaic generation systems, as well as the advances in energy storage and efficiency that define the concept of "eco-island", key to the green transition of the archipelago.
“We share with the Wet'suwet' Nation a vision of sustainable development based on dialogue and collaboration,” explained Luis de Valdivia, president of Ecoener. “This alliance allows us to move forward with projects that respect the environment and local communities.”
However, the delegation's trip comes at a delicate time. According to Amnesty International, the chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en Nation have been opposing the construction of a gas pipeline across their lands by Coastal GasLink for years, a megaproject that is proceeding without the Nation's free, prior, and informed consent and without addressing their concerns.
The gas pipeline, according to the organization, has caused environmental destruction and displaced the Wet'suwet'en people from their ancestral territory, preventing them from carrying out traditional activities such as hunting and fishing due to the damage to the forest. Access to much of the land is restricted for the community, except for the construction company, its private security firm, and the Canadian police.
Amnesty International reports that members of the Indigenous Nation have suffered harassment, surveillance, and intimidation, including police raids on their camps, the burning of their huts, and cases of gender-based violence against women land defenders. Several activists are currently facing legal proceedings and potential prison sentences for defending their right to decide which projects are developed on their ancestral lands.
The organization reiterates that the Wet'suwet'en Nation has the right to exercise its economic self-determination through free, prior, and informed consent, and to live in conditions of safety and dignity. The continuation of the project, Amnesty maintains, is “illegitimate and unethical.”
The visit to the Canary Islands thus takes on a symbolic and political dimension. While Ecoener presents its clean energy generation and community collaboration model as an example of a just transition, the controversy in Canada reveals the tensions that still persist between economic development and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples.
For the Canary Islands, the meeting projects an image of a pioneering territory in island ecological transition, capable of attracting international investment and serving as a model of energy self-sufficiency for other archipelagos around the world. But it also raises an ethical question: how to ensure that global green energy does not simply repeat the old extractive practices under a new guise.
