Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy Podcast

Why Renewable Projects Struggle Without Community Buy-In and How to Fix It

• Wes Ashworth • Season 1 • Episode 86

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0:00 | 45:23

What if the biggest reason renewable energy projects fail has nothing to do with technology or capital... and everything to do with trust?

In this episode of Green Giants: Titans of Renewable Energy, host Wes Ashworth sits down with Tristan Walker, President at Massif Energy, a company rethinking how renewable projects get built by putting communities at the center from day one.

Tristan grew up in a boom-and-bust resource town in British Columbia. He trained as an aerospace engineer, worked in municipal government, and even ran a clothing brand that funded community solar projects. Today, he's leading a new kind of clean energy company; one that starts every project with the question: "What does this community actually want?"

What You'll Learn:

  • Why community resistance often starts before the first permit is filed
  • How oil and gas earned loyalty in rural regions and what renewables can learn from that
  • The disconnect between local communities and institutional project owners
  • How to build pride and trust by co-designing projects from the ground up
  • Why BC’s hydro storage makes it a hidden asset in a renewables-first future
  • A mindset shift every developer and investor should adopt if they want to scale faster

This episode is for you if:

  • You build, invest in, or develop clean energy projects
  • You partner with Indigenous or rural communities
  • You care about scaling renewables with real public support
  • You believe trust is as important as technology in the energy transition

Links: 

Tristan Walker on LinkedIn

Massif Energy's website

Wes Ashworth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weslgs/


Head Shot

Wes Ashworth

Host