Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment (Text Version)

This is the text version of the video Addressing Regulatory Challenges to Tribal Solar Deployment.

The video outlines a 2023 NREL report on regulatory barriers to solar energy deployment on tribal land. The video provides an overview of a few of the barriers, including one case study example from the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.

>>Narrator: Did you know in the United States more than 5% of the total solar energy potential can be found on tribal land?

And while many tribes want to take advantage of this clean energy potential, they are often faced with barriers that govern where, when, and how a solar project can be developed, making the path to solar energy more difficult for tribes as compared to non-tribal jurisdictions.

[Illustrated images of the report document]

A new guidebook from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association identifies these barriers and potential solutions to make adopting solar energy easier for tribes who want to pursue it.

>> Brandy Toft, Environmental Director, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe: Tribes in general are stewards of the land. Where we're not only sovereigns, but we're stewards. And so, the whole aspect of wanting to do solar was just use less, use better.

>>Narrator: For the Leech Lake Band in Minnesota, they had plans to install a 200-kilowatt solar array to help offset energy bill costs for low-income residents.

>> Toft: We had a perfect site laid out. We had a rural cooperative that we were potentially working with. We just had everything. Everything was moving forward. We had the funding for everything we just needed to go on their grid.

>>Narrator: But because of net-metering regulations in the state of Minnesota, the tribe's vision of one large solar array turned into five smaller projects.

The split introduced another complication.

>> Toft: When it came around that we needed to break up this 200-kilowatt array into five 40s, we couldn't all put them in one spot.

[Animated illustration continues, now with four icons representing utilities]

>>Narrator: With five smaller arrays scattered around the reservation, the tribe now needed to work with four separate utilities that serve their land to complete the project—a complication for many tribes around the country.

Net-metering rules and reservations that are served by multiple utilities are just two of the 13 regulatory barriers outlined in the guidebook.

Each barrier was identified through interviews and extensive input from more than 600 tribal, regulatory, utility, and other stakeholder groups.

Overcoming these solar regulatory barriers can unlock significant benefits for tribes, like cutting carbon emissions, boosting energy sovereignty and independence, and lowering energy costs.

For the Leech Lake Band, they were able to overcome these barriers and unlock the many benefits of solar energy.

>> Toft: This project has just been wonderful. It's really, really done what it was supposed to do. It's generated an average of $22,000 per year for low-income energy assistance on the Leech Lake Reservation.

>>Narrator: Leech Lake is just one example of a successful solar project outlined in the guidebook, sharing insights for other tribes, utilities, and regulators who would like to pursue solar energy on tribal land.

Explore the guidebook at nrel.gov and type tribal solar guidebook into the search bar.