August 23, 2022
As tribes ramp up renewable energy development, corporates find opportunities to utilize high-impact financing mechanisms
In this last of a two-part series, BEF (Bonneville Environmental Foundation) Renewables discusses its efforts in bringing clean energy to tribal communities. The Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit is seeking to scale its successful projects, partnerships, and financial models for even greater impact. Click here to read the first part in the series.
Part II
Partnering with Tribes
BEF Renewables is on a mission to bring clean energy and environmental solutions to underserved communities across the U.S. by way of renewable energy projects, carbon offsets, STEM education, and clean water stewardship.
Within BEF’s Renewables Program, this is achieved by partnering with tribes, affordable housing providers, community groups, utilities, school districts, county governments, businesses, and industry to build new clean energy pathways for low-income communities in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. BEF helps partners identify, access, and leverage new sources of capital, including state, federal, philanthropic, or corporate grants.
BEF’s Renewables team provides technical expertise and project development support including site analyses and feasibility studies, contracting with engineers to ensure project installations are structurally sound, counsel on how to design and finance a project, and workforce development facilitation.
The impetus for bringing clean energy projects into communities often varies significantly between tribes.
“Every tribe in the U.S. is different, especially how they relate to their own journey of self-determination or autonomy,” said Raphaela Hsu-Flanders, Renewables Program Manager at BEF. “Every tribe’s relationship to renewable energy is different. There’s a whole spread of federally recognized tribes, and those that are not federally recognized. Within that, there are different sizes, different amounts of resources. During the termination and relocation phase, some tribes were placed on land that was a lot smaller than others. It’s always a learning process for us when we’re getting to know a new tribe.”
According to Hsu-Flanders, many tribes have been pursuing their own renewable energy projects like solar and wind. At the same time, funding opportunities and the availability of federal dollars have ramped up considerably.
“We’ve seen some success in pushing some grant makers and funders to be more inclusive as far as who they’re awarding grants to at the state and federal levels,” she said. “We often participate in rulemaking processes for grant opportunities and try to push for them to be as inclusive and accessible as they can be for tribes, low-income community groups, and affordable housing providers. There are opportunities to create more funding pathways.”
A prime example of this occurred during the summer of 2020, when BEF partnered with the Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) on their first solar project. Twende Solar, a Portland-based nonprofit, facilitated a volunteer-led installation of the project on the Queets Community Center.
The system now generates an estimated $2,000 in electricity bill savings annually for the tribe, while the battery backup system can power lights, refrigeration, device charging, and other critical needs in the event of a power outage.
Nine Quinault community members participated in an online solar job training program, with the hours counting towards certifications from the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. BEF is continuing to work with the Quinault on their next solar project, to be paired with additional workforce development and job skills training for QIN community members.
“On the community solar and tribal solar front, our goal has been to take the project, partnership, and financial models that we’ve had success with and try to scale them up and have more projects, more partners, greater impact, and leverage more funding for our partners,” Hsu-Flanders said. “There are so many grant opportunities that are either out right now or becoming available soon.”
To help create projects with even greater impact, BEF sells Stacked Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) and Carbon Offsets, in which a portion of earned revenue from REC and Offset sales support many of BEF’s mission-based programs.
By selecting a stacked REC or Offset, buyers can designate which program a portion of the revenue will go towards, stacking the benefits of offsetting with program impacts.
“As a nonprofit organization, we are able to find ways to bring corporate funding to the work,” said Heather Schrock, Director of Environmental Partnerships at BEF. “Through a Stacked Offset or REC, a business or corporation that’s buying carbon offsets already can choose to have part of their margin go specifically to tribal renewable energy funds. Hopefully, we’ll have even more traction as that program grows. It’s been growing and we hope to get some more corporate interest in these programs.”
2022 priorities
BEF will continue ramping up renewable energy projects in underserved communities, with plans to offer grant funding to its utility partners for EV programming, including e-bike and home charger rebates. BEF recently opened these grants to tribal applicants and has received robust response from several tribes throughout the Northwest.
“We’re proud to be able to enable the first chargers in these remote tribal communities,” said Evan Ramsey, BEF’s Senior Director of Renewables. “We hope to continue that kind of work.”
Efforts to bring clean energy initiatives to these communities have already seen significant support from the bipartisan infrastructure law, with the EPA’s new Clean School Bus Program. The initiative provides $5 billion over the next five years to replace existing school buses with zero-emission and low-emission models. Remote areas like tribal communities will be prioritized.
“Hopefully, we can play that connective tissue role to pair communities to those resources in the coming years,” Ramsey said. “These are small projects in the grand scheme of things, but what we’re trying to do is get clean energy projects implemented into communities that haven’t had that opportunity previously. And the more funding and resources that we can secure on the front end, the more long-term value there is for these communities.”
