As members of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy’s technical assistance team, Sherry Stout and Jared Temanson of DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently traveled to the Native village of Rampart, Alaska, to fulfill the Tribe’s request for technical assistance with strategic energy planning.
Today, Rampart is a predominantly Koykon Athabascan community with a subsistence economy. With just under 30 year-round residents, the village was forced to close its only school several years ago because of an insufficient number of students.
In an effort to address this and similar challenges associated with a declining population, Rampart’s leadership is aggressively working to develop the community and expand the population. The community recently received funding to renovate the school building, which it intends to reopen in the fall of 2015 as both a school and a multi-purpose community building.
The anticipated growth will have a significant impact on the community’s energy landscape, and tribal leaders recognize the importance of taking a proactive, strategic approach to planning. To meet this need, Rampart applied to receive assistance with developing a community-wide energy plan with an overarching goal of reducing energy costs for residents and community facilities.
“Rampart has ambitious development goals, and such goals often have an energy component,” said Temanson. “What the strategic energy planning session did was help the community understand the energy impact of their goals and craft a plan for achieving those goals in a sustainable and cost-effective way. Now Rampart can be confident that it is on a good path toward efficient, sustainable development.”
In the months ahead, the DOE Office of Indian Energy and NREL will keep in touch with the community to ensure that it is making progress. Rampart’s energy coordinator is pleased with the results of the strategic energy planning effort and said she intends to reapply for project development technical assistance as Rampart begins implementing its plan.