Download or read book Native American Community Perspectives on Renewable Energy Technology written by Jared Gregorini and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Future generations of humans and our non-human relatives will face the environmental consequences of a human-first approach towards development. The transition from fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources represents a deviation in behavior back to the eco-centric principles practiced by our ancestors for millennia. Renewable energy technology and infrastructure development often faces barriers within communities for numerous reasons. Using Native Nation Building theory from the community development literature as a foundation, this thesis examines the perspectives of tribal affiliated individuals for initiating renewable energy development in a Michigan tribal community. The study relies on 14 semi-structured interviews with tribal citizens and employees in one Native American community that has repeatedly expressed interest in developing renewable energy infrastructure projects on tribal lands. Through thematic analysis, observations, and personal experience, I show how both required elements of Native Nation Building have not been fulfilled and barriers to development are a result of conditions witnessed during repeated site visits to conduct qualitative interviews. This research makes it clear that the barriers identified by academic literature are overshadowed by the conditions witnessed while interacting with tribal community members. In addition to participatory based action research strategies, I argue that addressing poor community conditions is necessary while attempting community development projects focused on renewable energy transitions.

Download or read book Native Power written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Native Americans and Renewable Energy written by Christopher Carrick and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 620 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Power Paths Native Americans Fight For Green Power written by and published by . This book was released on with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can America truly end its dependence on fossil fuels and transition to green power?. Power Paths is an inspiring documentary about how Native American communities across the West are leading the transition to alternative energy sources.. Ten percent of America's energy comes from Native American lands, including a third of the U.S. coal deposits and hydroelectric dams that feed the grid. These coal mines and plants brought jobs to the region, but they also brought pollution, cancer and environmental destruction.. Power Paths chronicles the efforts of several tribes as they fight to end the harmful use of coal and work to bring clean, renewable energy projects into their communities, including wind and solar power. As Power Paths reveals, many Native American tribes are not waiting for the government to act. Instead, they are actively seeking investors and a way to control their own energy and sell the rest to the power companies.. As the nation at large struggles to disengage itself from the chains of a fossil-fuel-based economy, Power Paths signals cause for hope that an alternative is not somewhere in the future, but possible right now.

Download or read book Factors for Technological Appropriateness of Renewable Energy Options on Native American Reservations written by Michael John Dunaway and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tribes are shifting to investing in renewable energy projects. Technological appropriateness is fundamental to knowing which renewable energy project is a viable investment for tribes. Because tribes have limited resources, they need to know two primary aspects of technological appropriateness: mechanical efficiency and economic efficiency. Both are based on the geography of the reservation. Using GIS, I have evaluated the mechanical and economic efficiency of solar, biodiesel and wind renewable energy systems for every reservation in the United States. In addition, I have examined in more depth the Yakama, Standing Rock Sioux, and the St. Regis Mohawk reservations to determine what mix of these technologies to create an effective renewable energy portfolio based on several factors that could affect tribes' investment decisions. The second chapter focuses on the cultural elements that can impact a technology's appropriateness for a reservation using linguistic analysis and GIS to demonstrate the relationship between culture, technology and the land. The third chapter examines opportunities for tribes to create stronger collaborations with policy makers and academics by using linguistic analysis to highlight the highest frequency of words that each group uses in their documents concerning energy. The fourth chapter analyses the resource availability for each technology for each reservation using GIS to determine the environmental and economic factors that can impact a technology's appropriateness. The fifth chapter highlights the best practices that researchers can use when collaborating with Indigenous communities to conduct research as a means to strengthen those collaborations to increase the likelihood that a renewable energy project on a reservation will be successful. The goal of this research is to provide tribes with a tool that will help them to partner with government and academic institutions to build renewable energy systems to strengthen the tribe's sovereignty.

Download or read book Community Choices written by Konstantinos Karanasios and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community owned renewable energy generation (electricity and heat) is often associated with improving reliability and affordability of supply, increasing local wellbeing, empowering through new revenues, business opportunities and capacity building, and reducing environmental impacts. Similar motivations for renewable energy projects are observed in the case of Canadian remote indigenous communities that target activities that improve their socioeconomic conditions and mitigate socioeconomic-political-cultural impacts resulting from colonization, while having minimal influence on the environment and traditional activities. However, the slow transformation of remote indigenous communities' diesel-powered electricity systems through the introduction of renewable energy technologies (RETs) between 1980 and 2016 called for an examination of factors that influence the transition to more sustainable electricity options. The purpose of this dissertation was to improve understanding of the technical, contextual, and social complexity associated with the introduction of RETs into Canadian remote indigenous community electrical systems, explain the diffusion of RET projects within these systems to date, and examine the implemented governance processes and how these processes were modified to encompass indigenous perspectives. Improved understanding enables identification of pathways and development of policy recommendations for the transition to more sustainable energy systems. These objectives were achieved through: (a) a review of prior academic and non-academic documents on the introduction of RETs into remote communities, the examination of 133 community electrical systems in Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador, and the identification of RET projects undertaken between 1980 and 2016, (b) an empirical study in the context of northern Ontario, Canada, and (c) an analysis of events related to the introduction of RETs through, first, the multi-level perspective (MLP) approach to explain the non-linear uptake of RET projects in remote indigenous communities and identify macro- and meso-level factors that influenced the deployment, and, second, the technological innovation system (TIS) approach to examine policy measures and activities in Northwest Territories and Ontario and generate insights on micro-level factors that led to the development of an increased number of mostly solar projects in these provinces between 2009 and 2016. The key findings of the research suggest that the deployment of RET projects was influenced by the institutional complexity of indigenous electrical systems, the diversity of stakeholder perspectives (government, utilities and indigenous peoples) on community electricity generation and the challenges that the introduction of RETs is expected to address, and the uncertainty associated with both the future “long term” structure and governance of provincial and territorial electricity generation systems and the financial viability of small-scale off-grid applications. Furthermore, the shift from utility-driven to community-driven RET projects in the period examined was explained through the interplay between tensions developed from new legislation favouring indigenous aspirations and sustainability concerns, governmental and utility internal stresses expressed through governmental targets and supporting policies for renewable electricity alternatives, and pressures from technological advances. Governments engaged in a dialogue with indigenous people and other participants, which resulted in a policy shift from capital financing to capabilities improvements and network formation, and, finally, to regulatory and financial arrangements supporting indigenous demand for community owned electricity generation. This research contributes to scholarship and provides insights to policy design. First, it improves understanding of the nature of the problem associated with the introduction of RETs into Canadian remote indigenous communities by providing a description of the origins, dynamics, extent, and pattern of transition and the associated technical, contextual, and social complexity. Furthermore, it contributes to the field of sustainability studies by providing research using both the MLP and TIS concepts in the context of remote Canadian indigenous communities and evidence, first, that the proposed complex causal mechanisms were present and performed as predicted, and second, that regional institutional structures and networks (or the lack of them) played an important role in the diffusion of RET projects. Finally, this research suggests that a transition management approach involving the co-development of policies supportive of indigenous aspirations, experimenting and learning, and evaluation and adjustment of policies based on the acquired knowledge, may lead to an increased number of RET projects in remote indigenous communities. Accordingly, policy related recommendations include the need for (a) establishing specific targets, policies, and programs for the reduction of diesel consumption and the introduction of RETs (b) policy development in a collaborative and negotiated way with indigenous people, and (c) effective coordination of interventions for the creation of networks that would improve interactions and learning.

Download or read book Native Power written by and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Techno economic Renewable Energy Potential on Tribal Lands written by Anelia Millbrandt and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Introducing Renewable Energy on Tribal Lands Or Comprehensive and Holistic Alternative Energy Planning for American Indian Nations written by Michael Tulee and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tribes are interested in developing their alternative energy resources but have not had a comprehensive assessment that would allow them to prioritize what resource should be developed. They have commissioned studies of the supply capacity of specific energy sources such as biomass or wind; however, these studies have been conducted in isolation from other competing uses of these lands and they have not explicitly included their impacts on cultural resources. These studies were not designed to address how a decision may impact tribal quality of life, other forms of resource production and a tribe's future resource base. This lack of a holistic and comprehensive assessment creates barriers for projects to move to the next stage even when studies suggest that sufficient supplies of a resource are available and can be economically viable to develop. The goal of this research was to provide a platform where indigenous communities can make decisions that maintain the delicate balance between controlling one's own decisions, rooted in Native culture, and have the technological knowledge found in educational institutes and organizations, to prioritize what technologies and businesses to develop. This study had two objectives: (1) strengthen the political and technical capacity of tribes to develop their energy resources; and (2) develop a process for prioritizing resource development that is rooted in each tribe's culture and is economically viable. A case study approach was used to explore whether the production of biofuels, i.e., methanol, from wood wastes was a realistic option to develop niche products using tribal land resources. Since alternative energy resource supplies are located in rural areas and on many tribal lands, energy resources can be the vehicle driving sustainable economic development in rural communities if they were to become the regional suppliers of these limited alternative energy resources. Today, this is not happening even though rural areas need economic revitalization; tribes living in rural areas have much higher unemployment rates compared to urban areas (7-8%). Despite the high regional potential to develop alternative energies on tribal lands, this potential is not a reality today and there are many barriers that limit its development. Biofuel production is an ideal green industry to develop since it will be rurally based, provides a diversity of technical employment opportunities, and would not compete with the traditional products industries. To stimulate alternative energy resource development on American Indian Nation lands, a decision-process is needed to provide a comprehensive assessment of what energy supplies exist and how each resource production would impact cultural resources (e.g., open spaces, hunting, fishing, traditional foods, etc.) for all tribes living within the contiguous U.S. borders. Several factors limit or are barriers to tribes to develop their energy resource potentials: knowledge of what resources exists on tribal lands; lack of energy planning capacity to prioritize which energy resource to develop locally that does not impact their sovereignty, quality of life, increase external controls on tribal resource decisions and their future resource base (e.g., Colville Business Council Resolution 1996-23); and the matching of the appropriate conversion technology to the available renewable resources that is economically viable and culturally acceptable, and does not degrade the environment for future generations. This knowledge could potentially stimulate the tribal development of alternative energy resources in a holistic manner and facilitate identifying their training needs so each tribe can independently develop their resources. It would move tribes beyond developing an energy resource because it happens to be fashionable or in vogue on the global radar screen at the moment or because subsidies currently exist to develop it. It is generally accepted that if a region can develop its green economic potential that this will (1) create new employment opportunities for a highly skilled work force, (2) It would contribute towards regional energy security and rural economic revitalization based on abundant regional resources. Since alternative energy resource supplies are located on many tribal lands, energy resources can be the vehicle driving sustainable economic and job development. Alternative energy enterprises create direct and associated jobs in the bio-energy industry with salaries ranging from $38,000 to over $100,000 per year. For example, a diversity of job skills is needed by a biofuels industry: from bio-fuel production and marketing, certifying or assessing the sustainability of feedstock production/logistic, conversion technology to produce liquid fuels, renewable energy planning, and the business development of green energy enterprises. Tribes interested in developing their alternative energy resources need a comprehensive assessment that would allow them to prioritize what resource should be developed and what business enterprises to support. Any assessment needs to address other competing uses of these lands and resources as well as the impacts on cultural resources. This decision also has to examine how a decision may impact tribal quality of life, other forms of resource production and a tribe's future resource base. Several factors limit or are barriers to any tribe to develop their energy resource potentials: knowledge of what resources exists on tribal lands; lack of energy planning capacity to prioritize which energy resource to develop locally that does not impact their sovereignty, quality of life, increase external controls on tribal resource decisions and their future resource base; and the matching of the appropriate conversion technology to the available renewable resources that is economically viable and culturally acceptable, and does not degrade the environment for future generations. A comprehensive assessment whether it is worthwhile for a tribe to pursue alternative energy enterprises will need to be able to address all these aspects. This project will build the capacity for tribes to prioritize how they want to develop and use their resources so that it has business viability but is still rooted in culture. It will introduce new energy technologies on tribal lands that can foster new employment opportunities in energy and allow tribes to stimulate the regional development of renewable energy resources. Because tribes already contribute significantly to regional economies, tribal capacity in developing renewable energy technologies will contribute towards the vitalization of rural economies currently facing high unemployment and few employment options. It will also stimulate the use of regional resources to stimulate sustainable development and begin to contribute towards regional energy security. To make these decisions, each tribe needs to be able to comprehensively evaluate the impacts of resource consumption on the vulnerability of their lands to future land-uses and changes in the resource base as well as to identify any of its cultural impacts. This approach is similar to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programm (UNEP) and published in 2005 that focused on global evaluations of environmental conditions. This assessment was an international effort to inventory global ecosystems, their contribution to human development and well-being by countries. The MEA approach needs to be adapted beyond its focus on assessing ecosystems and scaled to the needs of each tribe and their cultural norms. It needs to facilitate tribes identifying what energy resources exist for each tribe and for them to prioritize the suitability of different energy options that they may decide to develop on their lands. This needs to be a comprehensive assessment approach that prioritizes the energy choices in a cultural and a livability of development framework. This is possible by establishing data layers relevant to tribal lands and ranking each scalar unit according to the different energy resources that are suitable and available for a tribe. The assessment process then ranks the available lands for each energy resource based on the metrics used to prioritize the alternative energy resources. This needs to be followed by a data layer that ranks the economic viability of each energy resource and the future implications of pursuing an energy resource. The ability to layer the different factors that are impacted by a resource allows the decision-maker to make informed choices for each resource and to compare it to other options. This is similar to the approach used by FAO's Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) project to determine what lands were or were not suitable for Tanzania to grow bioenergy crops by producing a suitability index. The suitability index was connected to costs to grow the crops as well as identifying lands that needed to be excluded from consideration, areas where malnutrition was too high so food crops could not be replaced by oil crops, and those areas not available because of infrastructure development.

Download or read book Barriers to Renewable sustainable Energy Technologies Adoption Indian Perspective written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Power of Renewables written by Chinese Academy of Engineering and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-01-29 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States and China are the world's top two energy consumers and, as of 2010, the two largest economies. Consequently, they have a decisive role to play in the world's clean energy future. Both countries are also motivated by related goals, namely diversified energy portfolios, job creation, energy security, and pollution reduction, making renewable energy development an important strategy with wide-ranging implications. Given the size of their energy markets, any substantial progress the two countries make in advancing use of renewable energy will provide global benefits, in terms of enhanced technological understanding, reduced costs through expanded deployment, and reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relative to conventional generation from fossil fuels. Within this context, the U.S. National Academies, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), reviewed renewable energy development and deployment in the two countries, to highlight prospects for collaboration across the research to deployment chain and to suggest strategies which would promote more rapid and economical attainment of renewable energy goals. Main findings and concerning renewable resource assessments, technology development, environmental impacts, market infrastructure, among others, are presented. Specific recommendations have been limited to those judged to be most likely to accelerate the pace of deployment, increase cost-competitiveness, or shape the future market for renewable energy. The recommendations presented here are also pragmatic and achievable.

Download or read book Renewable Energy for Federal Facilities Serving Native Americans written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is targeting Federal facilities serving Native American populations for cost-effective renewable energy projects. These projects not only save energy and money, they also provide economic opportunities for the Native Americans who assist in producing, installing, operating, or maintaining the renewable energy systems obtained for the facilities. The systems include solar heating, solar electric (photovoltaic or PV), wind, biomass, and geothermal energy systems. In fiscal years 1998 and 1999, FEMP co-funded seven such projects, working with the Indian Health Service in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior, and their project partners. The new renewable energy systems are helping to save money that would otherwise be spent on conventional energy and reduce the greenhouse gases associated with burning fossil fuels.

Download or read book Renewable Energy in Indian Country written by and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On June 25--27, 1995, at Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado, the Center for Resource Management (CRM), organized and sponsored a conference in conjunction with the Navajo Nation, EPA, and Bechtel Group, Inc., to deal with issues associated with developing renewable energy resources on Indian lands. Due to the remoteness of many reservation homes and the cost of traditional power line extensions, a large percentage of the Indian population is today without electricity or other energy services. In addition, while they continue to develop energy resources for export, seeing only minimal gain in their own economies, Indian people are also subject to the health and environmental consequences associated with proximity to traditional energy resource development. Renewable energy technologies, on the other hand, are often ideally suited to decentralized, low-density demand. These technologies--especially solar and wind power--have no adverse health impacts associated with generation, are relatively low cost, and can be used in applications as small as a single home, meeting power needs right at a site. Their minimal impact on the environment make them particularly compatible with American Indian philosophies and lifestyles. Unfortunately, the match between renewable energy and Indian tribes has been hampered by the lack of a comprehensive, coordinated effort to identify renewable energy resources located on Indian lands, to develop practical links between Indian peoples̀ needs and energy producers, and to provide the necessary training for tribal leaders and members to plan, implement, and maintain renewable energy systems. Summaries of the presentations are presented.

Download or read book Ecocide of Native America written by Donald A. Grinde, Jr. and published by Clear Light Publishing. This book was released on 1997-10 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is not only a work of history, it makes history.... We desperately need to hear this story if we are to save the earth, the sky, the water, the air -- save ourselves.... I thank Donald Grinde and Bruce Johansen for their eloquent and powerful contribution to our education. (Howard Zinn) A dense, hard-hitting well-documented work ... Ecocide of Native America offers a much needed option to European perspectives of history.... It is a valuable alternative textbook, if you can hold with its difficult truths. (New Mexican) The book includes the moving testimony of those who continue to experience the slow death of their lands, their means of subsistence, their communities, even as environmentalists look to Native American ecological precedents for solutions to our common global catastrophe.

Download or read book Renewable Energy and Wildlife Conservation written by Christopher E. Moorman and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2019-09-10 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Brings together disparate conversations about wildlife conservation and renewable energy, suggesting ways these two critical fields can work hand in hand. Renewable energy is often termed simply "green energy," but its effects on wildlife and other forms of biodiversity can be quite complex. While capturing renewable resources like wind, solar, and energy from biomass can require more land than fossil fuel production, potentially displacing wildlife habitat, renewable energy infrastructure can also create habitat and promote species health when thoughtfully implemented. The authors of Renewable Energy and Wildlife Conservation argue that in order to achieve a balanced plan for addressing these two crucially important sustainability issues, our actions at the nexus of these fields must be directed by current scientific information related to the ecological effects of renewable energy production. Synthesizing an extensive, rapidly growing base of research and insights from practitioners into a single, comprehensive resource, contributors to this volume • describe processes to generate renewable energy, focusing on the Big Four renewables—wind, bioenergy, solar energy, and hydroelectric power • review the documented effects of renewable energy production on wildlife and wildlife habitats • consider current and future policy directives, suggesting ways industrial-scale renewables production can be developed to minimize harm to wildlife populations • explain recent advances in renewable power technologies • identify urgent research needs at the intersection of renewables and wildlife conservation Relevant to policy makers and industry professionals—many of whom believe renewables are the best path forward as the world seeks to meet its expanding energy needs—and wildlife conservationists—many of whom are alarmed at the rate of renewables-related habitat conversion—this detailed book culminates with a chapter underscoring emerging opportunities in renewable energy ecology. Contributors: Edward B. Arnett, Brian B. Boroski, Regan Dohm, David Drake, Sarah R. Fritts, Rachel Greene, Steven M. Grodsky, Amanda M. Hale, Cris D. Hein, Rebecca R. Hernandez, Jessica A. Homyack, Henriette I. Jager, Nicole M. Korfanta, James A. Martin, Christopher E. Moorman, Clint Otto, Christine A. Ribic, Susan P. Rupp, Jake Verschuyl, Lindsay M. Wickman, T. Bently Wigley, Victoria H. Zero

Download or read book Native American Perspectives in Natural Resources and Environmental Technology written by and published by . This book was released on 1999* with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These proceedings reflect the work of a small selected group of individuals from both tribal and non-tribal community colleges... whose goal is to share information relating to natural resource management and environmental technology based curricula... The information from this forum is being used to develop a curriculum module that can be incorporated into existing curricula.

Download or read book Cool Energy written by Michael Brower and published by Island Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: