Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET) is moving Canada closer to a net-zero future by supporting local, place-based clean energy transitions, one community at a time.
From harvesting offshore wind, tidal and solar energy to innovative low-carbon financing and governance models, ACET is integrating breakthrough renewable energy technologies and solutions to scale positive impact for people, places and the planet.
Communities as catalysts
Three key aspects of ACET will drive transformational change:
- unique bottom-up approach to net-zero objectives through community engaged action and leadership
- innovative place-based social, policy and economic development
- translating learnings to community networks around the world
Project news
Learn how the ACET project is making a difference in mitigating the impacts of climate change in our communities.

The power of waves
CBC Producer Camille Vernet travelled to Nootka Island with UVic researchers to learn how the power of wave energy could help bring the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation back home to the remote ancestral village of Yuquot.
Photo: Radio-Canada | Camille Verne

Fostering sustainable energy transformation
ACET Executive Director Curran Crawford (left) believes an interdisciplinary approach is crucial to implementing sustainable energy systems that are reliable, cost effective and community driven.

From carbon to clean energy
UVic researchers work to accelerate solutions to help communities move away from carbon-based energy.

One giant leap closer to net zero
Learn how ACET will support clean energy transformations in remote and Indigenous communities.
Vuntut Gwitchin Government and YukonU train Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation citizens on community energy systems in Old Crow.
Photo: Yukon University
Strategic research areas (SRA)
1 Low-carbon & offshore renewable energy tech
Harness, use and store renewables including wave, tidal, hydrogen and offshore wind energy
2 Distributed systems and hybrid microgrids
Develop advanced microgrid controls, systems integration and management
3 Green hydrogen and e-fuels
Develop low-cost, safe and clean hydrogen and other e-fuel vectors
4 Business & finance innovation
Innovate finance and business models, and explore social enterprise potential
5 Integrated energy systems
Complex systems, place-based transitions, worldviews, policy interactions, Indigeneity
6 Scale-up and acceleration
Create transformation strategies scalable to communities worldwide
Academic partners




- Council of the Haida Nation
- Malahat First Nation
- Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation
- Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Government
- Dease River Development Corporation
- Barkley Project Group Ltd.
- BC Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy
- BC Hydro
- BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation
- BC Sustainable Energy Association
- Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS)
- Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST)
- South Island Prosperity Partnership
- Indigenous Prosperity Centre
- Rainhouse Manufacturing Canada Ltd.
- Scale Collaborative
- Capital Regional District (Greater Victoria)
- City of Victoria
- City of Saanich
- Yukon Government
- Yukon Energy Corporation
- ATCO Electric Yukon
- Alacrity
- Foresight Canada
- BMT
- Pembina Institute
- Marine Renewables Canada
- Ocean Networks Canada (ONC)
- University of Rhode Island (US)
- Pacific Marine Energy Center (US)
- Sustainable Marine Energy (UK)
- International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (Austria)
- Green Digital Finance Alliance (Switzerland)
- Social Ocean Energy Project (Switzerland)
- CorPower Ocean (Sweden)
- Waves4Power (Sweden)
This research was undertaken thanks in part to funding from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.
Institute for Integrated Energy Systems at the University of Victoria (IESVic)
Accelerating Community Energy Transformation (ACET) is an initiative of the Institute for Integrated Energy Systems at the University of Victoria (IESVic). For more than 30 years, IESVic has developed and advanced the most innovative interdisciplinary clean energy technologies. Their mission is to chart feasible pathways to sustainable energy systems through the development of new technologies, processes, and systems.
Land acknowledgement
We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the University of Victoria stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
We would also like to acknowledge the traditional and ancestral territories of the Musqueam people, the fourteen Yukon First Nations, Atikamekw and other Indigenous Peoples on which ACET partner institutions stand.