(274b) Interdisciplinary Tribal Energy Design Project

The University of Washington Bioresource-based energy for sustainable societies Ph.D. training program includes a year-long interdisciplinary project course involving collaborations with Northwest Native American communities. Described here is the first project, during the 08-09 academic year, with the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. The Yakama Nation holistically manages their 1.2MM acre reservation to provide sustained cultural, economic, recreational and environmental benefits to enrolled tribal members. An interdisciplinary team of 7 Ph.D. students from engineering and forest resources worked with Tribal representatives from the Yakama Departments of Natural Resources, Power, Forest Products, and Tribal Council to assess the regional supply of biomass residues for a proposed biomass-fueled combined heat and power facility, and the potential impact of large-scale biomass extraction on tribal employment and income, air quality, and ecosystem restoration goals. Representatives from Grant County Public Utility District contributed team expertise related to the regional electricity markets and capital financing issues.

The project drew on research expertise and facilities available in the students' research laboratories. Data from remote sensing and field work were used to develop forest, agriculture, urban waste and invasive species biomass inventories and supply curves. Spatially explicit data were coupled to a transportation logistics and cost model to assess the scale of facility that was feasible (thereby impacting tribal employment and income). Combustion in the facility was shown to eliminate much of the air pollution associated with open burning of forest, agricultural, and restoration residues. Finally, the project also considered the potential use of woody invasive species as fuel; invasive removal is a major restoration goal of the tribe. Integration of tribal restoration goals with the facility supply curve provided a revenue stream for the restoration work, allowing an expansion of restoraiton efforts. Power produced by the plant will satisfy State of Washington requirements for 15% renewable energy by 2020. These societal and environmental benefits can be increased by inclusion of adjacent landowners, but coordinated planning among fragmented landowners is a challenge throughout the West.

We describe lessons learned from this project and revisions being pursued for the second project with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. The participatory research and education model described here had remarkable impact on Ph.D. student diversity, with the 20 students in the first two cohorts including 6 Native Americans (3 Yakama, 2 Colville, and 1 Lumbee), 2 Hispanic Americans, and 1 African American.