While the energy transition in Canada can be a complex topic with many unknowns, Tristan knows one thing for sure—communities should benefit from energy projects happening in their own backyard.
If community members live close to a power project, they should be getting cheaper power through production credits tied directly to that project. This not only creates value for community members, it creates connection to the project.
Energy-nerd, entrepreneur, innovation enthusiast—Tristan Walker wears more than a few hats as the founder and president of Massif Energy. By working with communities and questioning business-as-usual, his work is helping others see the opportunities that lie within the energy transition—opportunities that can result in economic, social, and environmental benefits.
Below is a conversation we had with Tristan about how he got started in the energy transition space (hint: it involves t-shirts), the value of being an Energy Futures Lab Fellow, and how working with rural communities to increase their energy autonomy is what keeps him motivated. It has been edited for clarity and length.
Tristan Walker: I like to call myself an innovation enthusiast. I love staying up-to-date with the latest information, identifying challenges, exploring options, and figuring out solutions.
About two and half years ago I started Massif Energy. At Massif, we’re committed to supporting communities, First Nations, and individuals so that they are able to capitalize on the energy transition. Typically, larger corporations are the ones that tend to benefit from energy transition projects and our work at Massif is looking to change this.
TW: I grew up in a little town called Terrace, which is on the northwest coast of British Columbia about 600 km north of Vancouver.
It was a fairly rural place to grow up and as a young person I was very in touch with nature. Hiking, biking, getting out on the lake–I had a really unique opportunity to experience the natural beauty of our country. It has made me aware of how lucky we are to have places like Terrace while also recognizing the impact that humans are having in areas like this.
After high school I attended Carleton University for engineering where I entered the aerospace program. Every summer I would go back to Terrace and do wildfire fighting, which was a really eye-opening opportunity–I was able to see the impacts that natural disasters can have on the land.
While I was interested in aerospace engineering and enjoyed the program at Carleton, in my third year I realized that aerospace wasn’t a field I wanted to work in long-term. So, I began looking at how to leverage my skills and pivot to another area of study that was related. I started taking a course that dove into wind and aerodynamics which led me to get really interested in wind energy.
I realized that the renewable energy sector was one of those rising opportunities that had a lot of room for growth, innovation and cool high-level thinking. I started to take more courses related to this and in my third year I started a small apparel company called Step3Project, to fundraise for community energy projects.
TW: Step3 was a small company that sold apparel–like hats, shirts, and sweaters– and put the profits toward installing renewable energy projects. The goal was to install 3 watts of generation for every piece sold.
Our first project was a solar panel and battery installation on a back-country cabin that was previously lit by propane lamps that were flown in by helicopter. After installing the new technology, the cabin had full lighting and charging facilities without the use of any propane. We moved on to do other projects, including installing solar panels and batteries at my high school in Terrace so they could run an off-grid greenhouse. We also developed a remote fish counter on Vancouver Island that monitored migration patterns of fish. Our last project was at our community owned ski hill Shames Mountain where we installed solar and battery systems to power their shop during the summers to remove the need for diesel generators that were dirty, noisy and expensive.
Launching the brand and funding projects like this was a really cool opportunity to engage people that aligned with this work and allowed me to really cut my teeth in the sustainable energy world. I got an idea of what project management was like, what the design process was like and the impacts that this kind of work could have.
TW: After graduating with an aerospace engineering degree, I started a master’s degree in sustainable energy. The degree was interdisciplinary so I had the opportunity to work with students who were studying policy and architecture, which gave me insight into how these kinds of disciplines could actually work together in the energy transition space.
After I finished my master’s degree I wasn’t exactly sure of where I would go next. The apparel company was a super fun project that was making an impact, but it wasn’t really paying the bills. I decided to take a job in Pincher Creek, Alberta as the Town and Municipal District’s energy manager. I got to work there for two years, do a lot of community consultation and meet cool people doing work in the energy space, which introduced me to all of the opportunities within the Alberta energy sector.
TW: Over the course of a couple of years we ended up saving the Municipalities about $100,000 a year in energy costs and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 400 tonnes. We couldn’t have done this without the enthusiasm from the community and the decision-makers in Pincher Creek who really leaned into the opportunity to make some positive changes.
Even after the success of my time there, as a small community they didn’t have the capacity to keep me in that role long-term, and so this was the moment where I started to transition into consulting. I realized that a lot of smaller communities have goals they want to achieve around energy transition, but they don’t have the capacity to hire someone full-time.
That’s why I started Massif Energy–it enabled me to provide support to these communities without them needing to hire me full-time.
TW: I began working with some First Nations economic development corporations that were looking to achieve some green energy goals.
In understanding their goals and priorities, as well as their struggles, I worked on developing opportunity assessments and feasibility analyses for energy projects they wanted to see come to light.
Things really accelerated from this point and the kind of work we are doing today is with a variety of communities, often in rural settings. We’re working with communities to help them accelerate projects that align with their vision and provide long-term value to the communities, rather than that value leaving the community and landing in the hands of a large company.
One of the greatest parts of my work with Massif is having conversations with different communities and helping them see there are options when it comes to moving forward with energy projects–options that don’t have to involve large corporations. It sounds kind of cheesy, but we’re working with these communities so they can be in control of their own destiny–they can be in the driver’s seat as opposed to being a passenger.
TW: My first introduction to the Energy Futures Lab was through their Youth Innovation Jam, which was a really fun experience. After that, I applied to become a fellow and joined the Energy Futures Lab Fellowship in 2022 with the support of existing fellow James Van Leeuwen.
The biggest thing I took out of my first couple of years as a Fellow was the opportunity to connect with so many diverse people ranging in background, location, interests. Everyone was so different, but had the common thread of being aligned on the goal of a better energy future.
The Fellowship is unique in the sense that you can have these conversations that could otherwise be really volatile. I’ve had the opportunity to bring my ideas to the table but also gain perspective. When I go to an EFL event or talk to other Fellows we’ll have a conversation about an issue and then a few days or weeks later an idea or opportunity can arise from that group that will help solve the issue.
If community members live close to a power project, they should be getting cheaper power through production credits tied directly to that project. This not only creates value for community members, it creates connection to the project.
The energy transition is a change in technology and there are a lot of unknowns. Preventing yourself from getting into a conversation because you don’t feel like you are ready is a disservice to yourself.
I know it’s easier said than done, but throw your hat over the fence and go chase it.
TW: The biggest barrier I see is around the pace of innovation. In talking with communities and doing consultation, I often see that the information they have is not wrong, it’s just old. It’s not reasonable to expect that people who aren’t energy experts will have current and accurate information when the pace of change is so fast.
People base their opinion and make decisions based on the information that they have, but if that information has evolved quickly it’s really challenging to keep people informed.
The other barrier I see is the capital intensiveness of so many energy projects. These projects are long burns, they take a lot of upfront capital and you may not see returns for a while so it is a challenge for smaller organizations to get involved because they don’t have access to the amount of capital needed to get things off the ground.
TW: The way many existing energy projects happen is through a top down structure. A large corporation comes into a community with externally raised money to build a project. They do minor consultation to appease Alberta Utility Commission regulations, but they don’t put the community first. For example, they would use mostly out-of-town labour to build the projects and once the project is operational they might provide 2-8 long-term jobs. The project would then pay taxes to the municipality where it is located for the value of their assets at a diminishing rate over the 25-30 year project life.
With this approach, landowners would often receive a high lease value for having projects on their land but anyone living in proximity to the project would get nothing. Sometimes companies would put together a small annual fund for community benefit, but the funds were generally small and restricted in who could access them .
The motivation to change this model is really through community roots. These projects are impacting communities on a day-to-day basis–they have to live with the projects, but they aren’t getting the financial gain. With these large outlays of capital, the community should be seeing that money come back so it can recirculate within the community and benefit the people there.
For example, if community members live close to a power project, they should be getting cheaper power through production credits tied directly to that project. This not only creates value for community members, it creates connection to the project–if it does well, the community gets more credits, if it does poorly they get fewer credits.
This is what really motivates me to do the work I do–to keep dollars local and enable people to have a vibrant and stable community in locations where these energy projects are installed.
TW: The conversation I am having a lot is ‘there is no one-size-fits-all energy solution anymore’. The old electricity system was centred around more of a single source like a power plant powered by gas or coal or hydro. Now, we’re seeing a system that is much more diverse–more of a mosaic.
This is more complex, but every single solution has a role to play. Whether that is wind and solar that generate cheap electricity when the resources are available, or electric vehicles that reduce emissions of transportation, or natural gas plants and batteries to provide capacity support, increasing efficiency of heating systems with heat pumps–they all have a certain area where they fit in and work.
Because this approach is more complex, a lot of people struggle to align themselves with it. I hear some folks say ‘if it doesn’t work all the time, then it doesn’t work at all.’ My wish is for people to understand that we are going to need multiple solutions to transition to a more sustainable, less extractive resource system.
On top of this, is the amount of opportunity that lies within the energy system. Even though it’s a transition away from burning fossil fuels, that doesn’t mean a transition away from using oil and gas–combustion is just part of oil and gas usage. There is so much opportunity in Canada where we have renewable and sustainable resources and critical minerals. Something that gets missed is that we are in a really unique scenario and we can leverage this energy transition to accelerate our sovereignty and where Canada stands in relation to the rest of the world.
GC: Can you tell me about a success or moment where you realized your work is making a meaningful impact?
TW: Recently, we did a renewable energy conversation review for the municipal district of Pincher Creek where we looked at all the existing sources of renewable energy and the availability of transmission lines for new projects.
When we presented our findings to Council, one of the Council members made a comment that they read the report on holiday and it felt like they were reading a really good book!
That moment was pretty special–to know that we were able to create that connection between the energy opportunities and the local context in a way that the Council Member felt enough ownership to be engrossed in our report.
It was a moment where I realized that people do care and this work is actually having a huge impact on people’s lives and communities. It felt great to have created something so digestible that the person who wasn’t an energy nerd like myself could get excited about it.
I preface this piece of advice by saying you need to understand your capacity and your abilities, but at the same time understand that nobody really knows what the future holds and you need to just start doing things to figure it out.
Say yes to things, take the opportunities even if you don’t feel 100% comfortable. Ask questions and figure things out.
The energy transition is a change in technology and there are a lot of unknowns. Preventing yourself from getting into a conversation because you don’t feel like you are ready is a disservice to yourself. I know it’s easier said than done, but throw your hat over the fence and go chase it.
GC: Anything you are reading/listening to right now that you’d recommend?
TW: I just finished Chris Hadfield’s book An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, which was great. I also read A Story of the Engineering of the Kemano-Kitimat Transmission Line by Peter Catchpole, which is about designing transmission lines from Kemanno to Kitamat.
This book is really about figuring things out as you go. Nobody really knew how to do this kind of project, but by experimenting and trying things that hadn’t been done before they were able to accomplish what hadn’t been done before.
To learn more about Tristan’s work as an Energy Futures Lab Fellow, visit the Energy Futures Lab website.
The energy transition is a change in technology and there are a lot of unknowns. Preventing yourself from getting into a conversation because you don’t feel like you are ready is a disservice to yourself.
I know it’s easier said than done, but throw your hat over the fence and go chase it.
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