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The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (the Band) held a ceremony celebrating the completion of a 1-megawatt (MW) solar project on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota, on Aug. 23, 2016.

Construction on the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s 1.3-megawatt ground-mounted solar array in Ignacio, Colorado, will begin in early September, according to Namaste Solar, an employee-owned cooperative that will design, develop, and construct the solar array.

On July 25, the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians (Tribe) celebrated the installation of a 1-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) system on its approximately 7,000-acre Reservation in the foothills of the San Jacinto Valley in Southern California.

For many centuries, the 23-mile stretch of Pacific coastline on Washington's Olympic Peninsula has been home to the Quinault Indian Nation (Tribe). The Quinault Indian Reservation, a triangular tract of land comprising more than 200,000 acres, includes the villages of Taholah, Queets, and Amanda Park. The Reservation’s western boundary is among the few undeveloped shorelines remaining in the United States.

On April 20, 2016, Menominee Tribal Enterprises (MTE) celebrated the official opening of its biomass combined heat and power (CHP) district energy plant. MTE is the business arm of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin, located approximately 45 miles northwest of Green Bay.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in the Palm Springs area of California is a shining example of the type of leadership tribes can provide on the clean energy development front.

The Yukon River Inter-tribal Watershed Council (YRITWC) is a coalition of sovereign tribal and First Nations governments founded in 1997 to increase indigenous communities' resiliency in the Yukon River Basin. In 2009, the YRITWC partnered with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center to integrate renewable energy into innovative arctic housing design in the community of Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska.

The Southern Ute Indian Tribe has achieved a major milestone toward developing a roughly 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system that will generate energy equivalent to a 15% offset of the total energy usage at about 10 tribally owned buildings on the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in Ignacio, Colorado.

To say the Alaska Native village of Shishmaref is remote would be an understatement. The traditional Inupiat village sits on a barrier island about 20 miles below the Arctic Circle and the only way in or out is by boat or plane, which involves an hour-long flight from Nome. There’s only one paved road on the island; the rest of the streets are sand and most people get around on ATVs and dirt bikes, or in the winter, snowmobiles.

Challenges:

The Picuris Pueblo built its first net zero energy building, a solar-powered fire station and renovated gymnasium with the help of DOE Office of Indian Energy's START Program.

Under the Navajo-Hopi Land Settlement Act of 1974 for the Paragon-Bisti Ranch was set aside for the benefit of Navajo families (relocatees) living on Hopi Partitioned Lands. Now, more than 40 years later, the Navajo Nation is pursuing plans to use those resource-rich lands to cultivate clean, renewable energy.

Seeking to reduce its reliance on imported diesel fuel and to lower operating costs, increase quality of life, and serve as a model of self-sufficiency for local youth and surrounding communities, Gwitchyaa Zhee Gwich’in Tribe applied for and was awarded a $125,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Tribal Energy Program to supplement the tribe’s investment in a quarter-million-dollar energy efficiency and renewable energy project.

A short interview with Brian Lipscomb, president and CEO of Energy Keepers, Inc., a tribal corporation established in the fall of 2012 to manage the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ (CSKT’s) planned acquisition of Kerr Dam.

This project is benefiting tribal communities in Alaska with fuel savings, increased revenues to local utilities, reduced heating cost, as well as enabling utilities and customers to control costs.

The Nez Perce Tribe is located in the Pacific Northwest, where electrical energy costs are traditionally very low due to the hydropower generated in the area by the dam system. Even with relatively low energy costs, the Tribe recognized that even lower energy costs by implementing three relatively simple efficiency measures.

Several students at Oglala Lakota College in South Dakota are turning their solar lessons into clean electricity. Through a training course offered by the Department of Energy's SunShot Solar Instructor Training Network (SITN), a group of 20 undergraduates and their teachers installed a solar photovoltaic (PV) system on a mobile construction trailer in May.