FILE - A solar farm sits in Mona, Utah, Aug. 9, 2022. On Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, the Biden administration announced 17 projects across the U.S. to expand renewable energy access in rural areas, particularly for Native American tribes. The projects, which will cost $366 million, are funded by a $1 trillion infrastructure law President Joe Biden signed in 2021. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
The federal government will fund 17 projects across the U.S. to expand access to renewable energy on Native American reservations and in other rural areas, the Biden administration announced on Tuesday.
The $366 million plan will fund solar, battery storage and hydropower projects in sparsely populated regions where electricity can be costly and unreliable. The money comes from a $1 trillion infrastructure law President Joe Biden signed in 2021.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), $32 million in funding will be used for the “Yakama Tribal Solar Canal and Hydro Project.” The project aims to “convert inefficient, open-water irrigation canals into a solar and micro-hydropower irrigation system.”
“This cutting-edge system could conserve up to 20% more water and help energy-burdened residents save up to 15% on their utility bills,” the DOE said. “Additionally, the project team plans to build solar panels on land that the Tribe knows does not risk disturbing cultural resources, providing a replicable solution for responsible solar siting.”
According to the DOE, the project impacts on the Yakama Indian Reservation include:
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called the announcement “historic” at a clean energy tribal summit in Southern California that began Tuesday.
“This is the largest amount that the Department of Energy has awarded to tribes for energy projects,” she said.
About a fifth of homes in the Navajo Nation — located in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah — do not have access to electricity, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates. Nearly a third of homes that have electricity on Native American reservations in the U.S. report monthly outages, according to the Biden administration.
The announcement comes as Native tribes in Nevada and Arizona fight to protect their lands and sacred sites amid the Biden administration's expansion of renewable energy. It also comes days after federal regulators granted Native American tribes more authority to block hydropower projects on their land.
The Biden administration will only secure funding for the 17 projects after negotiating with project applicants, federal officials said.
The projects span across 20 states and involve 30 tribes. In addition to the project on the Yakima Indian Reservation, the projects include $30 million to provide energy derived from plants to wildfire-prone communities in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.
Another $27 million will go toward constructing a hydroelectric plant to serve a tribal village in Alaska, while $57 million will provide solar power and storage for health centers in rural parts of the Southeast, including in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.