Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe – 2019 Project

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

Summary

The FSST comprises primarily descendants of Mdewakantonwan, a member of the Isanti division of the Great Sioux Nation. They refer to themselves as Dakota, which means friend or ally. The Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian Reservation is 2,500 acres of land along and near the Big Sioux River in Moody County, South Dakota, in a region known as the Prairie Coteau, which consists primarily of undulating or gently rolling land.

In 1934, the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe was formally organized and recognized under the authority of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.Today, the 324-strong FSST operates under a constitution and is governed by a seven-member Executive Committee or Tribal Council.

The FSST has experimented with wind meteorological towers and pole-mounted solar in past years, but these efforts were not successful because of external factors. After those early attempts to pursue renewable energy development with solar and wind, the Tribe has reaffirmed its commitment to find opportunities to create local energy infrastructure. To this end, the Tribal Council unanimously voted to create the FSST Utility Commission to foster the development of 1) conservation, 2) investment in clean and sustainable energy, and 3) energy independence.

The FSST has pursued an aggressive program of energy conservation steps, primarily light-emitting diode lighting conversion. To date, five buildings have been completed with an anticipated 10-year savings of over $200,000; four more buildings are expected to be completed by early summer. The Tribe is now seeking additional conservation opportunities.

This project represents a significant investment toward the second of the three goals the new utility commission established: to wisely install clean energy systems that offset local consumption. This solar project will focus on development of internal capacity so the Tribe can undertake further development without complete reliance on outside knowledge and experience. The small projects will also create the basic awareness needed for tribal maintenance resources to maintain, monitor, and troubleshoot systems as required.

This project will also foster the transfer of experience to develop local skills and infrastructure to advance the goals set out by the FSST Utility Commission. The project represents an ongoing phase of development toward the larger goals of achieving tribal energy independence and decreasing economic drain of the Reservation.

The Tribe has made significant investments in energy efficiency and is now looking to take the first steps toward development of energy generating systems to save money and increase clean energy production on the FSST Reservation. This project will use an internal team with local assistance to create an energy infrastructure with the corresponding internal capacity to deploy it.

This project will install 318 kW of solar energy systems on 11 sites located on tribal lands, which will create a sustainable energy infrastructure on the FSST Reservation and reduce retail electrical consumption by 30% (470 MWh) annually. This energy savings will directly benefit the tribal economy by creating jobs and internal capacity. The decentralized nature of the proposed projects reflects the limitations inherent in available interconnection policy size limitations. But it also maximizes economic capture because it displaces high-cost retail power purchases by replacing 30% of the combined consumption.

The primary goal of the proposed project is to undertake development of the second stated objective of the utility commission and develop clean energy infrastructure on the FSST Reservation. This visible and significant deployment will show tribal members that the new utility commission is serious about pursuing these opportunities for the FSST. This community-scale deployment will also help to further develop a culture of energy stewardship and awareness through expanded energy infrastructure and education.

Economic activity, investment in Reservation power infrastructure, and economic benefits are directly driven by the system purchase, the installment, and the avoidance of electrical purchase based on new local production. The net economic impact is that more money stays on the Reservation instead of funding faraway power plants. An estimated $1.1 million will be generated over the more than 25-year project life.

The community-scale deployments at the 11 tribal locations will have their unique impact. These distributed energy infrastructure systems meet the goals set for FSST. Offsetting retail grid power with locally produced energy infrastructure makes economic sense, and FSST is committed to continually expanding this capacity within the Tribe.

The project will install 318 kW of solar PV energy systems at the 1) Royal River Casino RV Park, 2) Prairie Junction fuel station, 3) Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribal Offices, 4) Grace Moore Senior Center, 5) Legal Counsel Office, 6) Old Medical Building, 7) FSST Community Center, 8) New Health Clinic, 9) Eastman (community) Hall; 10) FSST Wellness Center, and 11) Pharms agricultural facility. For all the proposed sites, systems are “right-sized” to avoid net export from the site.

Professional training and internal capacity development of the FSST will also result. Numerous leadership members will become familiar with the solar project development process and develop a stake in these installations. Since FSST labor and supervision will be used in the installation process, additional experience and exposure will be gained by installation crews.

This development of internal capacity within the FSST is a major takeaway from this project and will provide a basis for further development. The project will generate significant work during the first year with eight short-term jobs; it will train and impact at least 12 people on solar projects and energy infrastructural development.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Indian Reservation is 2,500 acres of land located along and near the Big Sioux River in Moody County, South Dakota, in a region known as the Prairie Coteau, which consists primarily of undulating or gently rolling land. The FSST will install 318 kW of solar PV energy systems at 11locations on tribal land.

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

The project was competitively selected under the Office of Indian Energy's Fiscal Year 2019 funding opportunity announcement “Energy Infrastructure Deployment on Tribal Lands - 2019” (DE-FOA-0002032) and started in October 2019.