Akiachak kwethluk renewable energy and climate adaptation planning projecta collaborative learning and decision making initiativethis project will develop our capacity based on our communities…

This $209,000 federal Project Grant award from the Department of the Interior's Tribal Energy Development Capacity (TEDC) Grants program (CFDA 15.148) will support the Organized Village of Kwethluk in Alaska to develop renewable energy strategies and climate adaptation plans. Specifically, the funding will be used to:

1. Conduct a feasibility study to assess the potential for renewable energy to provide economic growth, energy independence, and environmental sustainability, including training local residents to collect community-wide energy use data.

2. Develop a community education program to increase tribal awareness and involvement in the tribe's renewable energy and climate adaptation initiatives.

3. Establish tribal policies, regulations, and agreements to implement a renewable energy strategy and greenhouse gas reduction plan.

This multi-year grant project aims to build the Organized Village of Kwethluk's technical, managerial, and organizational capacity to maximize the economic potential of renewable energy development on their tribal lands, in alignment with the TEDC Grants program objectives.

Akiachak kwethluk renewable energy and climate adaptation planning projecta collaborative learning and decision making initiativethis project will develop our capacity based on our communities decisions and efforts to transition towards renewables. The organized village of kwethluk and the akiachak native community have a long relationship of working together and have each adopted goals to reduce fuel imports by 200,000 gallons annually, and produce 5,000,000 KWH from renewable energy sources by 2028. To detail these goals, we are jointly requesting $247,000 to create strategies, plans a for our communities and our utilities to successfully transition and grow our renewable generation. We also recognize the importance the need to begin community energy education programs to ensure our tribal members understand how their actions affect our community utilities ability to deliver electric services, and operate and maintain our infrastructure. This will support our utilities efforts to effectively transition and integrate renewable energy projects with our current diesel systems. We anticipate conducting our efforts both jointly and separately. Our communities have different governmental structures and norms. However, we can learn from each other and provide each other insights about our communitys efforts. This will be enormously useful for US. In addition, we have both had a positive and productive working relationship with one of the most experienced renewable energy development firms in alaska intelligent energy systems. LLC. (IES). IES is our preferred contractor to assist US with the efforts described in this proposal. We have identified three areas that we need financial assistance to develop these efforts for our tribal energy and climate initiative. The following provides a general description about how we would use BIA-tedc funding for our efforts.1. Develop a feasibility study to identify renewable energys potential to provide economic growth, economic diversification, energy independence, and environmental sustainability.a. This is also a workforce development initiative to provide training and hands-on experience for tribal community members. The result of this training will be usable data for both communities renewable energy strategies. We will do this by:i. Training local residents to conduct a comprehensive community wide, energy use assessment data to assess energy use, fuel storage and generation capacity inventory. This data will provide: - a solid baseline estimate, and build the foundation to monitor and evaluate changes overtime. - an assessment of fuel displacement potential. - a projection of the current grids carrying capacity including challenges to integrate additional renewable energy into the grid. - a preliminary conceptual DESIGN2. Community education program developmentincrease tribal awareness and understanding of renewable energys value and involve our residents in planning our tribal energy and climate adaptation initiatives.a. We will create a programmatic approach to community education with our utilities by planning a year s long plan about messages, conveying the messages and measuring the effectiveness of our program.b. We will involve our local schools to provide opportunities for school-aged residents too.3. Establish policy by:a. Reviewing our tribal authority to implement a renewable energy strategy, greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction plan and develop an operations and power sales agreement with our tribal utilities.b. Developing our renewable energy pollution and GHG reduction strategies and action plans. C. Developing operations and power sales agreement.