The Native Village of Kotzebue was the only recipient in Alaska for a Department of Energy award focusing on renewable energy. The $31-million-dollar grant through the Office of State and Community Energy Programs spread nationally to a dozen local governments and tribes for a variety of clean energy and infrastructure projects. The tribe plans to use their $3 million dollar portion for a new solar farm outside of Kotzebue.
“The idea of the tribally-owned energy project is to have more control locally over the price of energy, and to be able to produce as much energy locally as we can, reducing the amount of diesel fuel we use for electricity,” said Chad Nordlum, the energy project manager for the Native Village of Kotzebue.
Nordlum said this is the largest of three grants the tribe has received from the department in the past few years, and could add an extra 700 kilowatts of renewable energy to Kotzebue’s grid.
“I think it's a lot about energy independence,” Nordlum said. “For Kotzebue, we are so dependent on imported fuel, so this is a big step and a long time coming.”
The award’s announcement follows a $55 million dollar grant from the department earlier this year to the Northwest Arctic Borough. The grant will also fund a variety of renewable energy projects, from a 4-megawatt storage battery in Kotzebue, to new solar arrays and heat pumps to the region's outlying villages.
The solar arrays allow village tribes to act as independent power producers and sell renewable energy back to Alaska Village Electric Cooperative, or AVEC, to offset diesel, which adds income that the tribe can use for village improvements and initiatives.
Nordlum said the Native Village of Kotzebue’s solar farm would follow a similar model. Once the solar farm is operational, the tribe plans to sell energy to Kotzebue Electric Association, or KEA the community’s energy cooperative.
“With tribal ownership, the Native village of Kotzebue will be able to sell electricity at a lower rate,” Nordlum said. “If that money, say, is going to the tribe, and the tribe is spending on tribal programs, which are by and large, aimed at low income families in Kotzebue, that has positive effects. That means that money that stays in the community is spent in the community.”
KEA General Manager Tom Atkinson said purchasing from the tribe would “turn a new corner” for the co-op, which currently relies on their own energy production from solar, wind and diesel generation.
The tribe is also partnering with the Kikiktagruk Inupiat Corporation, the Northwest Arctic Borough and Atautchikun, LLC, a subsidiary of NANA Regional Corporation.
Nordlum said the tribe has other renewable energy projects in the works as well.
He said although a site for the new solar farm hasn’t been selected, the tribe hopes to begin constructing platforms for its solar panels this spring.
