| Project Detail |
Shared challenges, including diesel dependency in remote locations, climate change impacting energy availability, coordination of fuel purchases, and energy infrastructure planning, have driven the region to cooperate and share solutions and opportunities where possible. The essence of this project is that by working together and learning from each other and outside experts, the region can harness locally available resources and cultural cohesion to improve economies, develop and disseminate best practices, and leverage existing successes and partnerships.
The successful implementation of this project and related projects aligns with the tribal, corporate, community, and regional goals of reducing diesel fuel consumption and energy costs, increasing energy self-reliance, promoting economic development, and environmental stewardship as it relates to protecting both the climate and surrounding lands.
The overall aim of this technical assistance initiative is to reduce fossil fuel use and energy costs by 7% across the region, primarily through improved powerhouse operations, renewables and energy efficiency deployment, and coordinated bulk purchasing, along with establishing a framework for an integrated, self-supporting, noenergy-focused regional entity to support all communities and business enterprises in the northwest Arctic.
This project will substantially bolster NANA’s capacity, spread success and opportunity more uniformly throughout the region, and accelerate achievement of the organization’s goals.
The objectives under this initiative include:
Increase frequency of the ESC meetings.
Integrate technical training sessions to coordinate with ESC events.
Develop community-specific utility/energy prefeasibility-level briefings for each participating community
Disseminate arctic application technology reviews for the benefit of participating tribal communities.
Promote economies of scale in energy and power projects for the NANA Region teleconference meetings with regionwide stakeholders and community-specific meetings.
Undertake feasibility level analysis on the creation of a regionwide energy/utility authority.
The proposed project activities are based on goals and needs of the region, ranging from individual village impact to national engagement. They include:
Expanding ESC meetings from a one-day meeting once per year to two workshops annually that will target specific topics
Training community participants to collect appropriate data for individual village and regional planning and economic evaluation
Providing each village with a prefeasibility study/action plan based on data collected and analysis
Performing technical assessments of particular technology applications potentially appropriate for remote, northwest arctic communities
Expanding on prefeasibility studies/action plans and incorporating data collection and analysis to develop sustainable (financial and technical) programs for each village and the region
Posting lessons learned and distilled from other locations and within the region, as applicable,on the website and distributing them to all participants
Developing a white paper that encapsulates the next level of planning and analysis, focused on regional energy self-sufficiency, improved economies, regulatory and institutional considerations, and strategic collaborations
Participating in regional, statewide, and national venues and collaborating closely with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy’s Inter-tribal Technical Assistance Energy Providers Network. |
