DOE picks 63 tribe-led energy projects for over $125 million

The Department of Energy's Office of Indian Energy selected 63 tribe-led projects for over $125 million on October 22, 2026, spanning 16 states and 61 tribal entities, DOE said. The office calls it the largest single investment in tribal energy development in its 20-year history. These are selections for award negotiations: DOE says selection "is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding," and it may rescind any selection during negotiations.

The money outgrew the notice. The office's March 2026 funding notice sought applications for up to $50 million, and applications requested about 10 times the funding available, according to the selections page.

Thirteen projects are deployments, and they take just over half the money: $70.1 million of the $137.2 million in federal funds requested on DOE's project list, by our sum of a document DOE says is drawn from applications and subject to change. They include hydroelectric plants at Old Harbor and Pedro Bay in Alaska, power plants at Noatak and Chalkyitsik, a biomass boiler heat loop at Port Graham, and a Navajo Tribal Utility Authority request for $7.5 million to electrify homes. DOE says the 13 will bring electric service to 150 tribal homes that lack it and convert 500 homes and businesses to natural gas heating; the Seneca Nation's $6.7 million gas distribution expansion is on the same list.

The 23 large-scale planning projects lean on geothermal: seven name it in their titles, and an eighth is the Tanana Chiefs Conference's hydrothermal exploration project. Others study two data centers, a 500 kV transmission line, critical minerals at Tar Creek and a natural gas power plant for the Quinault Indian Nation. That geothermal interest comes on top of DOE's 21 geothermal selections of September 21, 2026, a separate round. The remaining 27 selections are predevelopment work, from tribal utility authority studies to microgrid designs.

No project title among the 63 mentions solar or wind, and the only one naming storage is a $252,052 request to design a battery system in Alaska's Chilkat Valley.