DOE to Award $2.5 Million to 18 Tribes for Efficiency, Renewable Energy

June 14, 2005

DOE announced on June 14th that it plans to award nearly $2.5 million to 18 Native American tribes to advance the use of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies on tribal lands. The tribes will investigate energy audits, energy efficiency improvements, and a wide range of renewable energy technologies, including biomass, geothermal, solar, and wind energy. Notable projects include plans to tap geothermal energy resources on the Citizen Potawatomi Nation tribal lands in central Oklahoma, efforts to evaluate wind power development in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and plans to install utility-scale wind power plants on tribal lands of the Hualapai and Hopi in Arizona. See the DOE press release, or go directly to the full list of projects (PDF 9 KB). Download Adobe Reader.

The grants are being awarded through DOE's Tribal Energy Program, which promotes tribal energy self-sufficiency and fosters employment and economic development on tribal lands in the United States. As part of the program's effort to promote energy self-sufficiency, it has created a new Web site called "A Guide to Tribal Energy Development." See the new Tribal Energy Development Web site.