Techno-Economic Renewable Energy Potential on Tribal Lands

Renewable energy technologies provide opportunities for diversification, energy independence, environmental sustainability, and new revenue streams for Native American Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages. Many of these lands are in areas with that have abundant renewable energy, such as wind, solar, and biomass. This study estimates the technical and economic potential for renewable energy development on tribal lands. It aims to support tribes in decision-making as they evaluate technologies, potential scales of development, and economic viability. The resources analyzed here include wind, solar photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP), woody biomass, biogas, geothermal, and hydropower. The study provides updated information to a previous renewable energy technical potential analysis on tribal lands, Geospatial Analysis of Renewable Energy Technical Potential on Tribal Lands (Doris et al. 2013). It includes current information, refined data, additional locations (in Alaska, for distributed generation only), and an expanded scope expansion that includes an economic evaluation of the renewable energy potential.