Could This New Approach Unlock Gigawatts Of Native American Solar Energy Potential?

Native American lands across the lower 48 states are home to an estimated 17.6 terawatt-hours (TWh) of solar energy potential – a staggering amount considering total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation in 2018 was 4.2 TWh.

Funding for solar projects on tribal lands has largely come from government sources, but rarely covers full project costs, and poor management has hindered development. As of 2000, 14.2% of all Native American households have no access to electricity – more than ten times the national average.

While federal funding has helped tribal communities start accessing clean energy, a new approach combining public and philanthropic funds with nonprofit management and industry expertise could catalyze solar energy’s potential to create a brighter future for tribal communities facing energy insecurity and high unemployment.

Nationwide tribal barriers to clean energy transition embodied by the Navajo Nation

Native American tribes have a long history of energy exploitation, especially with extractive industries like coal and petroleum, which has created fossil fuel-dependent economies. As the clean energy transition has accelerated, many tribes are turning to renewables to strengthen their communities and economies while cutting energy costs.

This dynamic is readily apparent in the Navajo Nation, home to both the 2.25-gigawatt Navajo Generating Station (NGS) coal plant and more than 15,000 homes without access to electricity – roughly 75% of the total Native American households without access to electricity. Despite having the largest renewable energy resources of any tribe in the U.S., NGS was one of the Navajo Nation’s primary employers and sources of revenue for 45 years, while tribal authorities struggled to provide grid-tied power to its rural homes.

Fast-falling clean energy costs have rendered NGS uneconomic, and the utility that owns it decided to shutter the plant in early 2019, forcing tribal authorities to consider purchasing the plant before ultimately deciding to reorient the tribe’s energy economy toward renewables. But this transition won’t be easy – more than 1,000 tribal members were employed at NGS and the mine that served it, and tribal officials are facing $35 million in budget cuts due to the closures.

Even though renewable energy jobs offer higher wages than the national average, and solar installer is forecast to be the fastest-growing U.S. job through 2026, clean energy projects (and thus jobs) have historically been limited for the Navajo Nation. In 2016, Sandia National Laboratories concluded the Navajo lacked legal and technical capacity to expand renewable energy generation on tribal lands.

Fortunately, tribal members are seizing the opportunity to create good jobs through clean energy . One company founded by tribal members, Navajo Power, has already installed 200 off-grid solar and storage systems on tribal lands. Another company, Native Renewables, was formed in 2016 to train local tribal workers to build and maintain off-grid solar systems.

Public-private partnership approach catalyzes federal funding for new renewables capacity

But the Navajo aren’t the only tribal nation facing challenges in the coal-to-clean transition. Native American communities have been slow to install renewable energy on tribal lands, despite the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Indian Energy providing an average of $7.8 million per year in federal funding for new renewable energy projects since 2010. According to DOE, these funds have added 43 projects totaling 18.5 megawatts (MW) of new tribal renewable capacity, including 10.1MW of solar and 3.2MW of wind energy.

In 2015, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported poor federal management has hindered energy project development on tribal lands “resulting in missed development opportunities, lost revenue, and jeopardized viability of projects.” GAO’s report also referred to limited tribal technical capacity, similar to Sandia’s 2016 report. In both cases, private sector expertise may have been able to overcome some of these barriers.

Fortunately, GRID Alternatives, a national leader in connecting underserved communities with renewable energy and job training, is helping overcome the problem. The nonprofit is applying a public-private partnership model to Native American communities through its national Tribal Program, which combines public and philanthropic funding with solar industry expertise to install no-cost solar installations in low-income communities, and provide workforce training to local residents.

These efforts have installed 649 solar arrays for 40 tribes with nearly 4.2 megawatts (MW) total capacity, reducing energy bills for tribal households by between 75%-90%, and providing hands-on solar workforce training to more than 1,500 individuals. But nationwide, DOE grants require a one-to-one match – meaning some of its awards have not translated into steel in the ground.

In 2018, GRID Alternatives launched the tribal-led Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund (TSAF) to cross this gap, identifying and helping win funding for tribal solar projects, then providing matching funding to fully fund projects. The first project selected for TSAF funding, the Spokane Tribe of Indians’ $2 million Children of the Sun Solar Initiative (COSSI), moved forward after matching $1 million in DOE grants with private investment and philanthropic funding from the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Construction recently began on the 650-kilowatt project, which will power 23 homes and nine tribal buildings (eventually including energy storage), and GRID Alternatives is providing solar installation training to tribal employees and community members during construction. Tribal authorities launched COSSI after a destructive 2016 wildfire to achieve energy sovereignty, expand resilience to climate change’s impacts, and strengthen the local economy. TSAF enabled the first step toward that goal.

“This project is born of fire. The 2016 Cayuse Mountain Fire stimulated us to look at going solar because of the impact it had on the reservation,” said Tim Horan, Executive Director of the Spokane Tribal Housing Authority. “The Children of the Sun Solar Initiatives puts us on a path to energy independence, climate resiliency, and tribal power sovereignty – eventually we could be self-sufficient.”

Several other examples embody the upside of this public-private partnership approach. California’s Chemeheuevi Tribe completed a solar microgrid for their community center to combat frequent power outages and high electricity costs in 2018, and recently completed a new multi-family household solar installation that was also funded through TSAF. Colorado’s Ute Mountain Ute tribe recently began installation on a 1MW community solar project to meet the tribe’s 100% renewable energy goal, funded through DOE grants and matching funds through GRID Alternatives.

Strengthening tribal communities through renewable energy

Tribes across the country have set their sights on renewable energy as they work to attain energy sovereignty , build climate resiliency, cut costs, help communities develop valuable skillsets, and create new economic opportunity. New DOE funding creates the potential for tribal communities to achieve these goals, and leveraging private capital and philanthropy can help fill funding gaps and catalyze new opportunities for tribes.

“Many tribes are looking to renewable energy to address environmental and economic challenges in their communities,” said Adam Bad Wound, GRID Alternatives’ Vice President of Philanthropy. “Access to funding is often the biggest barrier to achieving these goals, and we’re excited to see tribes, public-private partnerships, and philanthropies coming together to move renewable energy projects forward.”