Nevada Clean Energy Fund and Walker River Paiute Tribe Selected for Community Change Grant Award
Today, the Nevada Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), in partnership with the Walker River Paiute Tribe (WRPT), was selected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a $20 million award under the EPA Community Change Grants Program. The NCEF-WRPT partnership was one of 84 project applications selected nationwide and announced today, adding to the 21 Community Change Grant projects previously selected in July.
This project will deliver water, energy, and food infrastructure to the approximately 1,200 members of the Walker River Paiute Tribe who live on the Walker River Reservation. NCEF will work with the Walker River Paiute Tribe to provide home energy upgrades to 150 households to make them more efficient and resilient. The project will also transform the planned Nutritional Wellness Building into a Community Resilience Hub that will provide shelter in emergencies, including extreme heat events. The Hub will include solar and battery storage, an energy-efficient heat pump, and resilient building construction. In addition, the award will allow the Tribe to complete critical water infrastructure expansion as part of its Water System Improvement Project.
“This Community Change Grant award will fill critical funding gaps and enable us to implement transformative energy and water infrastructure projects,” said Andrea Martinez, Chairman of the Walker River Paiute Tribe and Chair of the Nevada Clean Energy Fund Tribal Advisory Board. “Our joint efforts with NCEF will drive tangible public health and environmental benefits for the wider Walker River Paiute community.”
“This award highlights the importance of supporting our Tribal communities in accessing safe living and community spaces,” said Kirsten Stasio, CEO of NCEF. “We are excited to be working with the Walker River Paiute Tribe on this project. This award is a big milestone for the Nevada Clean Energy Fund’s Tribal Clean Energy Program, which supports all of Nevada’s Tribes in implementing clean energy opportunities.”
The award application was developed with support from Nevada GrantLab, a nonprofit organization and public-private partnership that assists local nonprofits and public agencies to apply for and administer federal grants that benefit Nevadans.
This award is part of NCEF’s Tribal Clean Energy Program that works with Nevada’s Tribes to enable them to identify funding for beneficial clean energy project opportunities that meet their critical needs and advance their energy sovereignty. NCEF provides targeted technical assistance and education to Nevada’s Tribes on clean energy projects and federal funding opportunities, and supports and partners with Tribes to apply for and implement funds. This includes helping Tribes access NCEF’s Solar for All and Clean School Bus programs and apply to Home Electrification Rebate formula grants from the U.S. Department of Energy. NCEF convenes a Tribal Advisory Board that informs and supports this work. NCEF’s Tribal Clean Energy Program is also supported by the NV Energy Foundation.
About the Walker River Paiute Tribe
The land that the Walker River Paiute Tribe, more respectfully and traditionally called the Agai Dicutta (Trout Eaters), travelled, cared for, and survived off of for thousands of years is located in the heart of the Great Basin. The Walker River Reservation is approximately 325,000 square acres centralized in a town now known as Schurz, NV, located north of the contemporary towns Hawthorne, NV and south of Fallon, NV and encompassing parts of Mineral, Lyon and Churchill counties. Approximately 1,200 enrolled members of the Walker River Paiute Tribe live on the Reservation, and over two thousand more live across the state and the region. The mission of the Walker River Paiute Tribe is to maintain the Agai Dicutta heritage while carrying it into the future. The Tribe is dedicated and committed to advocating and protecting Tribal sovereignty. The Walker River Paiute Tribe fosters the ideal of community self-determination and self-sufficiency and strives to promote, preserve, and protect the quality of life for its Tribal members.
About the Nevada Clean Energy Fund
The Nevada Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) is a nonprofit organization that supports a thriving, affordable, and accessible clean energy economy by providing financial and technical resources to Nevadans. NCEF was established by Nevada legislation in 2017 as the state’s green bank. NCEF implements programs for diverse Nevada stakeholders, including local businesses, households, affordable housing, Tribes, nonprofits, schools, local governments, and rural communities. Clean energy measures include building electrification and efficiency, renewable energy, clean vehicles, and others.
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