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Short abstract:

This research addresses asymmetries in the relations of knowledge production in renewable energy by integrating Indigenous knowledge and priorities into a promising but nascent field that explores how solar power can be embedded into agricultural systems.

Long abstract:

The deployment of renewable energy systems across vast landscapes across the world - expected to advance the transition from national reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy - brings with it questions of competing land uses, effects on soil and water systems, and implications for equity, justice, and Indigenous self-determination. Indigenous lands house considerable potential for renewable energy generation and are increasingly targeted in initiatives to transition countries away from fossil fuels. Yet top-down planning practices risk both violating the sovereignty of Indigenous nations and reproducing energy systems that mirror the monocropping, single land use mindset of large agribusiness. Our research contributes to the nascent body of research on the integration of solar energy into agricultural and other environmental systems by focusing on the co-design of integrated agroecological renewable systems to emphasize the multifaceted goals that may be achieved beyond or in synergy with crop and energy production that reflect additional goals of Indigenous communities. This project forges a convergent research paradigm that not only deeply integrates disciplinary modes of thinking from otherwise siloed fields, but also incorporates the values, knowledge, and priorities of Indigenous communities, thus confronting legacies of dispossession and demonstrating the potential of communities underrepresented in scientific research to contribute to research that can address society’s most urgent problems in both food system and energy system sustainability.