In May 2015 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy announced its selection of five Alaska Native villages to receive technical assistance to accelerate clean energy projects and initiatives through the Alaska Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) Program.

Alaska START assists Alaska Native corporations and villages with accelerating clean energy projects. The competitive program aims to reduce the cost and use of energy for Native communities in Alaska; increase local capacity, energy efficiency, and conservation through training and public education; and increase renewable energy deployment and financing opportunities for communities and utilities. 

Since its launch in 2012, the program has helped address energy challenges and advance clean energy technology and infrastructure projects in 16 villages, including the five selected under the third round of START technical assistance in 2015. The Office of Indian Energy, along with DOE national laboratories and other local and national experts, have been working with those communities to develop strategic energy plans to help mitigate climate change, conduct energy awareness and training programs, and pursue new renewable energy and energy efficiency opportunities.

The Round 3 technical assistance kicked off in November 2015 and will continue through June 2018. Here’s an update on how the five villages selected in Round 3 are making progress toward addressing the challenges identified in their START applications: 

When applying for START, the Native Village of Huslia (Huslia), located in Interior Alaska, had a working draft of its community energy vision, which was “to reduce imported diesel 50% by the year 2030 in order to help reduce costs and decrease the effects of climate change on our community.” As such, Huslia sought START assistance in developing a strategy to realize that vision and in articulating that strategy to better position the community for future funding opportunities.

As a result of Huslia’s selection for the START Program, NREL modeled Huslia’s energy system and conducted a detailed energy options analysis to provide a least-cost strategy for getting to 50% fuel reduction. The analysis showed that after energy efficiency (which is the low-hanging fruit), biomass for heat and solar photovoltaics (PV) for electricity would be Huslia’s two best options for reducing the use of imported diesel. The community had never undertaken an efficiency project, and after seeing the results from the energy analysis, the Tribal Council was excited about pursuing a village-wide lighting retrofit as a first-step energy efficiency project that could save the community money and energy. Now NREL is working with a local energy advocate to conduct surveys, collect data, and engage stakeholders. Once that work is done, the START team will work with the Tanana Chiefs Conference—the 42-village tribal consortium of which Huslia is part—to get the lighting retrofit funded and implemented.

The Kokhanok Village Council (Kokhanok), a federally recognized Tribe located on the south shore of Lake Iliamna in Alaska’s Lake and Peninsula Borough, requested support with developing an interdisciplinary utility management curriculum that could be taught in the local school and eventually across the borough. The community also sought assistance in developing strategies for getting two defunct wind turbines working again.

While the START effort in Kokhanok is focused on curriculum development, the Department of the Interior, under its Remote Community Renewable Energy Partnership (RCRE) initiative, is also working with the Office of Indian Energy. For RCRE, Kokhanok is serving as a case study on high renewable contribution microgrid design and development in rural Alaska. The RCRE project is conducting detailed system modeling and laboratory testing to help address issues with integrating Kokhanok’s wind turbines into its grid. Both the START and the RCRE efforts are in progress. The curriculum is on track to be completed by September 2017 and ready for adoption in the village and possibly throughout the Lake and Peninsula Borough during the 2017–2018 school year. Ideally, the curriculum will prove useful for teaching students and new utility operators statewide about utility operation and management. The RCRE modeling is complete, and laboratory testing is under way at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska Center for Energy and Power. RCRE and technical experts from NREL are now working with the community and its support network under START to develop a competitive solicitation for industry to respond to. The goal is to get Kokhanok’s high-penetration wind system working to its full potential—resulting in significant reduction in fossil fuel use in the community.

The Organized Village of Kwethluk (Kwethluk) in southwest Alaska sought technical assistance with replacing aging utility poles and rebalancing the community’s electrical distribution system, some portions of which were believed to be overloaded. START discussions with AEA and Kwethluk Inc., the village corporation that owns and runs the utility, revealed that overloading was not an issue in Kwethluk. However, further discussion revealed that energy audits on Kwethluk’s large and aging building stock would provide tremendous value to the community. 

During the initial START site visit in late July 2016, NREL’s Building Scientist Jimmy Salasovich and Jim Fowler, owner of Energy Audits of Alaska, traveled to Kwethluk to design an energy efficiency program for the community. The team presented the program design to the Kwethluk Joint Group, which consists of Kwethluk, Inc.; Kwethluk City Council; and Organized Village of Kwethluk Tribal Council—and they approved the plan for the proposed energy efficiency program. Fowler then conducted targeted energy audits of approximately 20 community facilities while Salasovich and START Project Leader Jared Temanson visited a dozen residences deemed representative of the homes within the community.

Energy models for the homes and community facilities are being finished now, and the analyses of proposed energy efficiency options should be complete in October. With those options, the next step is to help get the energy efficiency measures funded and implemented within the community. 

Located in Northwest Alaska’s NANA region, the Native Village of Shungnak (Shungnak) has a goal of reducing fossil fuel use 50%. It sought START support with developing a strategy for realizing that goal and with developing a strategy to better position the community for future funding opportunities.

As the requested START assistance got under way, experts from NREL modeled Shungnak’s energy system and conducted a detailed energy options analysis to provide a least-cost strategy for achieving a 50% reduction in fossil fuel use. The modeling revealed that using heat recovery from the Shungnak power plant, using biomass for heat, and implementing energy efficiency measures were the community's best options for reducing diesel use. Shungnak has several renewable electricity options, including solar, hydropower, and wind; however, the renewable resource potential is either not great or is far from the community. As such, NREL brought in Fowler to analyze energy efficiency measures for community facilities and heat recovery experts from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) to conduct a detailed feasibly study of expanding the existing heat recovery loop to other buildings downtown. With those analyses complete, the NREL experts are now working with ANTHC and Energy Audits of Alaska to help get those projects funded. “The heat recovery project is particularly cost effective,” said Temanson. “It has the potential to save Shungnak hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in heating fuel costs, with a payback period of roughly 10 years—almost twice as fast as similar projects in Alaska.”

Check out an infographic illustrating the impacts of START and other Office of Indian Energy efforts to accelerate energy solutions in Alaska.