Tribal Nations across the country have their own unique energy and electrification-related needs and implementation capacity. The Tribal Electrification Program is meeting the unique needs of individual Tribal communities by supporting collaborative and community-led planning and implementation.
Through this funding, the program will provide financial and technical assistance to Tribes to connect homes to transmission and distribution that is powered by clean energy; provide electricity to unelectrified Tribal homes through zero-emissions energy systems; transition electrified Tribal homes to zero-emissions energy systems; and support associated home repairs and retrofitting necessary to install the zero-emissions energy systems. The program will also support clean energy workforce development opportunities in Indian Country.
In 2000, the Energy Information Administration issued a report that estimated that 14 percent of households on Native American reservations had no access to electricity, which was 10 times higher than the national average.
In 2022, the Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy issued a report citing that 16,805 Tribal homes were unelectrified, with most being in the Southwest region and Alaska. By recognizing that each Tribe has its own energy- and electrification-related needs and implementation capacity, this program will meet the unique needs of individual Tribal communities.