Akwesasne Housing Authority on behalf of St. Regis Mohawk Tribe – 2016 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

Initiative 1: Go Solar

Under the Community-Scale Akwesasne Housing Authority (AHA) Go Solar Initiative, the St. Regis Mohawk AHA will install approximately 614.74 kilowatts (kW) of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in Franklin County, New York, to serve 159 housing-related buildings on the Tribe’s reservation. The ground-mounted PV systems will be installed on a 25-acre parcel owned by the Tribe, and the generated electrical power will be utilized under National Grid’s net metering programs to offset energy use and costs for AHA’s buildings and tribal members’ residences.

This project will serve 5% of the total tribal community’s residential energy load and 4% of the total electrical energy usage including governmental and commercial buildings. When considering all fuels used on the reservation, the project provides a 3.35% reduction of total energy load on the reservation.

Initiative 2: Net Zero

The Akwesasne Housing Authority will create three “net-zero” buildings by installing energy efficiency measures and 161.5 kW of solar PV, reducing annual energy costs by about $36,200. Two of the buildings are part of the Sunrise Green Development project, a tribal affordable housing development that will provide on-site services to tribal veterans, elders, and their families; the third is an existing building that houses the Akwesasne Boys & Girls Club.

Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe is a sovereign, federally acknowledged Indian tribe. The Tribal Council created the AHA by ordinance in July 1984 and has designated the AHA as its agency for purposes of administering the Tribe’s Indian Housing Block Grant under the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act of 1996. The St. Regis Mohawk Reservation is also known by its Mohawk name Akwesasne. U.S. census data indicate that the total population is 2,919, and U.S. Post Office data confirm that there are 1,277 households on the reservation.

St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and AHA have worked together to develop a 10-Year Tribal Strategic Energy Plan. This plan was prepared as a result of an Energy Summit that AHA initiated to discuss the Tribe’s critical energy issues, priorities, and strategies. The overall goals of the two initiatives are integrated into the Tribe’s long-term goals and visions.

Under Initiative 1, AHA carefully reviewed its utility bills to determine the appropriate size of solar facilities to serve them and has also worked with low-income tribal members to collect and analyze their billing information to appropriately include them under the community solar metering program.

Under Initiative 2, energy audits of all three buildings for this project have identified effective energy-efficiency measures (EEMs). In addition, professional evaluations have determined the proper kW of solar to install for each building to allow it to reach net-zero status after the EEMs are implemented. AHA has consulted on solar interconnection requirements and relevant net-metering programs, and incentive programs. 

The overall project objectives are: 1) decreasing reliance on fossil fuels and thereby reducing the Tribe’s environmental footprints; 2) increasing tribal energy self-sufficiency; 3) adding diverse, complementary green-energy systems; 4) significantly lowering the energy costs for tribal members and AHA; 5) providing a model for low-income tribal energy projects; and 6) creating jobs and mentoring opportunities for tribal members.

The specific objectives of the Go Solar Initiative are to: 1) install about 615 kW of solar generation capacity that will service tribal housing buildings overseen by AHA; 2) use net-metering programs to reduce the energy costs for AHA and tribal members by up to $4,417,501 over the life of the project; and 3) lower the carbon footprint of the tribal residential community by about 351,543 pounds of greenhouse gases per month.

For the Net Zero Initiative, AHA will create three net-zero buildings. To do this, AHA will first implement several EEMs to make the buildings as energy efficient as practical. Following this, AHA will partner with an investor to install three systems for a total of 161.5 kW of solar PV that will provide 100% of the buildings’ energy needs. This project will also include training and jobs for tribal members for impending EEMs, solar PV installation, and operation and maintenance of the EEMs and solar systems. This Initiative will create a replicable model for tribal communities to cost-effectively develop new buildings or retrofit existing buildings to become net-zero facilities.

The reservation is located in Franklin County, New York, and bordered by the Towns of Fort Covington, Bombay, Brasher, and Massena. St. Regis Mohawk Tribe occupies a six-mile square territory within its ancestral homeland on the St. Lawrence River. The Go Solar project will utilize two sites on tribal lands located in Franklin County, New York, that have available and sustainable solar energy sufficient to produce the solar power. For the Net Zero Initiative, AHA will create three net-zero buildings: two new net-zero low-income housing buildings located at Sunrise Acres III, which include the Veterans Supportive Housing building and the Seniors Supportive Housing building, and one older, existing net-zero building used by the Akwesasne Boys & Girls Club.

The project is complete. For additional details, see the final report and project status reports.

The initial project (GO Solar) was competitively selected under the DOE Office of Indian Energy Fiscal Year 2015 funding opportunity announcement “Deployment of Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Projects on Indian Lands – 2015” (DE-FOA-0001390) and started in July 2016. The Net Zero initiative was competitively selected under the Office of Indian Energy’s funding opportunity announcement “Deployment of Energy Efficiency and Clean Energy on Indian Lands – 2017” (DE-FOA-0001660) and was combined under the existing agreement in September 2017.