REAP, in collaboration with Alaska Center for Energy and Power (ACEP), National Labs and other partners, is offering technical assistance to rural Alaskan communities through the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (applications due February 15th). National Labs has helped communities all over the nation with energy technical assistance.

The result: successful and impactful energy projects that help communities become more energy resilient. 

Take Pueblo of Picuris as an example.

Pueblo of Picuris is a tribe in Taos County, New Mexico which sought to become 100% solar powered. The Tribe reached out to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for technical assistance to better understand their options for solar PV deployment and how to proceed in developing solar on tribal lands. 

Through the technical assistance program, NREL provided: 

  • A week-long solar operations and maintenance training for technical staff from the Picuris Pueblo. This provided both classroom and hands-on learning for solar PV system operations and maintenance. 
  • A feasibility assessment of 100% solar resource deployment within the Picuris Pueblo. To do this, NREL developed a solar-specific site plan, which included system performance modeling reviews, guidance on environmental requirements, and proposal assessment to help support the solar system developer selection process. 
  • Assistance in gaining utility support for the project. 

As a result of this partnership and the hard work by the Pueblo of Picuris, the community was able to achieve multiple successful outcomes including: 

  • A 25-year Power Purchase Agreement with the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative. This means the power generated by the Tribe-owned array is purchased by Kit Carson Electric Cooperative at a fixed price per kilowatt hour.
  • A $1 million grant provided by the Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy for a 1-megawatt solar array to offset the Tribe’s contribution of $1.2 million. 
  • A successful array project that offsets 100% of the cost of energy used by tribal buildings and residences on Picuris trust lands and provides approximately 26% of the daily energy needs of the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative. 

Interested in how energy technical assistance can help your rural Alaskan community? Read our blog post “How Rural Alaskan Communities Can Benefit from Technical Assistance.”

Ready to apply for technical assistance through the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project? Apply now. Applications are due February 15th. 

February 8th, 2021

SolarTechnical