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A tribal clean energy fund has raised $30 million to finance pre-development costs for solar projects on tribal lands. Meeting pre-development milestones will allow tribal communities to apply for federal loans to complete the projects.
The Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy has raised more than $30 million in pledges from major foundations to help launch solar and other clean energy projects on tribal lands.
Tribal communities have begun applying for grants from the fund to cover the costs of pre-development steps such as feasibility studies, interconnection studies, pre-engineering work and environmental studies, said Chéri Smith, president and CEO of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy.
Completing the pre-development steps allows a tribal community to apply for loans from the U.S. Department of Energys Office of Loan Programs, which has $20 billion in loans available.
According to Smith, with the Alliances $100 million funding target, the fund could cover the pre-development costs of 5.6 GW of solar power and 1.4 GW of other clean energy projects.
Without a predevelopment grant, a tribal community may not be able to pursue a solar project, or may only be able to do so by exchanging a significant portion of ownership in a project for predevelopment funds.
Smith described a “tremendous opportunity” for solar project developers, given the federal aid available for clean energy development on tribal lands and the “enormous amount” of tribal lands suitable for utility-scale development.
The Alliance acts as a conduit “and a buffer” between developers and tribes, Smith said. “You don’t work with tribes in the usual settler way,” he said. The Alliance conveys this philosophy through its Tribal Clean Energy Summit, held each year at the national RE+ conference. The Alliance has also created an “e-learning journey for equitable tribal partnerships” called “Pathways to Trust” that Smith said will be hosted on the Solar Energy Industries Association’s website.
The Alliance fund is called the Indigenous Power and Light Energy Sovereignty Fund. Smith said energy sovereignty “means something different to each tribe, but the general concept is: How can tribes be truly sovereign if they rely on outsiders for their energy? They can’t. The goal is to generate our own energy. Some tribes may not be interested in owning or operating large power plants, but it is their sovereign right to decide that.”
“For many tribal elders especially,” he said, clean energy “represents a last chance to regain true sovereignty.”
The Alliance, having raised the first third of its $100 million goal from climate funders, “now needs to expand into other circles of philanthropy,” Smith said, such as high-net-worth individuals and family offices “who are interested in a just transition, climate equity and marginalized communities.”
The U.S. governments Office of Indian Energy recently launched a similar program that provides $25 million to cover pre-development costs for tribal projects, Smith said. |
