TCU Energy and Food Sovereignty Nexus Prize

TCU Energy and Food Sovereignty Nexus Prize is sponsored by National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on behalf of DOE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations' Energy Improvements in Rural or Remote Areas program. This prize encourages student teams from Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) to develop and implement demonstration projects related to energy and food sovereignty. [3]

State, Local, and Tribal Program Accomplishments: Fiscal Year 2024 | NLR It's time to upgrade your browser. It does not support the video tag. Supporting the Development of Efficient, Affordable, and Resilient Energy A video collage of NREL State, Local, and Tribal researchers and technologies.

Learn about the technical support provided by the State, Local, and Tribal Program in place-based community energy research and projects for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. In FY 2024, NREL's State, Local, and Tribal Program collaborated with more than 546 states, local jurisdictions, Tribes, and communities to support them in making informed energy transition decisions.

With broad support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and leveraging knowledge from local partners and stakeholders, NREL meets communities where they are. NREL provides energy expertise and solutions to develop efficient, affordable, equitable, and resilient energy systems that address local priorities and challenges.

This work includes economic and workforce development, infrastructure planning, energy justice, U.S. communities supported technical assistance programs Success Stories and Community Highlights Leveraging interdisciplinary expertise and NREL's world-class analysis capabilities and suite of modeling tools—such as ARIES , ResStock™ , REopt ® , and the State and Local Planning for Energy (SLOPE) Platform —NREL's State, Local, and Tribal Program applies an equitable, holistic, systems thinking approach to tackle the most complex local energy challenges to deliver real results Communities in Hawaii and Alaska Exchange Ideas To Engage Residents in Energy Transitions Through the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project (ETIPP), Sitka, Alaska, worked with Molokai, Hawaii, to learn best practices for engaging community members in building a strategic energy plan.

Electric Vehicles Grow in the Desert: Peer Learning Helps Sedona Plan for Charging The city of Sedona, Arizona, found new ways to build its electric vehicle charging capacity through participation in DOE's Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) peer-learning Learning Helps San Diego Center Community Voices in Clean Energy Plans Looking to enhance community participation and build capacity within its organization, the San Diego Association of Governments joined a C2C peer-learning cohort focused on integrating community voices into clean energy planning and development.

Two Communities Find Electric Vehicle Options That Meet Local Goals Through Clean Washtenaw County, Michigan, and New Haven, Connecticut, explored how electric vehicles can support their communities' clean energy goals with expert analysis from researchers at NREL and Argonne National Laboratory. Illustrates Opportunities in Philadelphia's Equitable Carbon Neutrality Quest The city of Philadelphia has pledged carbon neutrality by 2050.

Philadelphia used the SLOPE Platform to illustrate opportunities to alleviate energy poverty and bring benefits to areas most in need. Decarbonization Goal Setting in Will County, Illinois Will County, Illinois, leveraged the SLOPE Platform to explore potential investment in a cleaner vehicle fleet, to expand renewable energy generation, and to engage the wider community in its efforts.

Perspective Pivot: Mapping a Landscape of Voices in Oahu Changes Energy Planning Through ETIPP, Oahu, Hawaii, explored microgrid technology to meet local energy resilience priorities—from every-day reliability and access to emergency and disaster response.

Resilience at the Edge: City of Eastport Considers Harnessing Tidal Power for Island Researchers at NREL and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory worked with Eastport, Maine, to explore microgrid options for the bridged island at the easternmost point in the continental United States through ETIPP.

in on Electric Vehicles: How Duluth, Minnesota, Is Preparing for the EV Future NREL researchers stepped up to the challenge to collaborate with a community in Duluth, Minnesota, to expand its local electric vehicle infrastructure.

Washington Tribes in the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project Gather Spark Northwest, a regional partner organization for ETIPP, brought together members of the Nooksack, Port Gamble S'Klallam, and Makah Tribes for a solar energy training.

Technical Assistance Program Highlights Clean Energy to Communities NREL continued to support clean energy progress in more than 200 communities through DOE's Clean Energy to Communities (C2C) program . C2C provides communities with expertise and tools to achieve their renewable and grid, transportation, buildings, and resilience goals through three unique offerings.

In 2024, NREL led a joint DOE-lab effort to begin 2- to 3-year in-depth partnerships with six community teams to develop and validate plans to achieve energy goals. In September, NREL selected three more community teams to receive up to award funding and up to $3. 5 million in technical assistance.

In 2024, NREL—with support from the World Resources Institute—welcomed to six different peer-learning cohorts focused on clean energy transition topics within one of four categories: renewable energy and grid, transportation, buildings, and resilience.

Over 6 participants attended monthly workshops where they learned from experts, clean energy planning exercises, and discussed first-hand experiences In 2024, NREL and other DOE labs provided 40‒60 hours of expert match support to nearly 200 local governments, electric utilities, and organizations to inform time-sensitive decisions relating to a wide As part of the Communities LEAP (Local Energy Action Program), NREL partnered with 22 of the 24 pilot communities to provide tailored technical assistance.

NREL supported the communities with coalition building, comprising government entities, community-based organizations, utilities, residents, and more. The community coalitions then worked with NREL to determine pathways for a clean energy future, resulting in custom technical assistance spanning analysis and modeling, strategic planning, community engagement, and workforce development.

NREL also developed more than 150 presentations, technical reports, fact sheets, and other products to help communities apply for new funding and technical assistance opportunities. Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project ETIPP expanded its support to 57 total island, coastal, and remote communities across the United States and its territories in FY 2024.

The 12- to 18-month DOE program—which is managed by NREL and follows community-led initiatives to build energy resilience—began offering up to $50,000 in direct funding to participating communities.

The program also offered an energy planning technical assistance track in addition to in-kind modeling and analysis from researchers at NREL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories.

Fourth Cohort of Communities ETIPP welcomed 25 new communities into its fourth cohort—including by community-based organizations, Tribes, and local governments—and more the number of communities accepted in previous cohorts.

While some engage in energy planning—a new technical assistance track for ETIPP's will pursue deep-dive technical assistance projects exploring renewable and resilience strategies ranging from solar and wind generation to and wildfire preparedness.

Regional Partner Expansion ETIPP deepened its roster of regional partner organizations, welcoming to support communities and ETIPP projects along the Gulf Coast and They joined existing ETIPP partners supporting communities in Alaska, seaboard, and the Pacific Northwest. The program expects to add partner to assist communities in the Great Lakes region, Hawaii and Pacific Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants NREL provided technical assistance through DOE's Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program for more than 200 grant recipients in FY 2024. This program is designed to assist states, local governments, and Tribes in implementing strategies to reduce energy use and fossil fuel emissions and to improve energy efficiency.

Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy NREL assisted 235 community, county, Tribal, and state grant recipients. communities' Energy Efficiency and Conservation Strategy documents, analysis or feedback on technical questions, helped communities identify to leverage, and more.

In FY 2024, NREL produced nine webinars in a series featuring training in valuable tools to assist recipients with Voucher Technical Assistance NREL continued to deliver technical assistance to Energy Efficiency and Block Grant Program recipients who chose the Voucher option, which gives access to a suite of technical assistance.

In FY 2024, NREL entered the assistance process with 13 recipient governments, with more to follow in Inflation Reduction Act Home Energy Rebates Support for States and Tribes In partnership with DOE's Office of State and Community Energy Programs, NREL assisted Tribes and states in developing programs to issue Inflation Reduction Act-funded Home Efficiency Rebates and Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates.

NREL assisted states with projections of consumer energy and cost savings and provided approval of building energy modeling software to be used in the programs. NREL assisted Tribes with application support and program design.

In total, researchers provided direct technical assistance to 13 states and assisted with six webinars to answer Tribal Clean Energy Capacity Building In partnership with the Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association, NREL hosted a 2-day workshop in May for nine Tribal members to learn how to use the REopt web tool for modeling solar and solar-plus-storage projects.

The workshop covered project the Inflation Reduction Act, ownership structures, fleet electrification, bifacial Tribes for decades providing resources for capacity building, data for informed making, and direct technical assistance to support their self-defined energy goals Tribal Nation Transmission Program NREL provided technical assistance through the Tribal Nation Transmission Program .

Developed with Tribal input to DOE, this program supports federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and Villages with their energy transmission projects through educational resources, training, and expert support from NREL. It also provides funding to aid Tribal participation in key transmission events.

Weatherization Technical Support NREL's weatherization team provided technical assistance and research to support DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program to help improve accessibility, support innovation, and expand workforce development for home energy professionals.

In FY 2024, NREL helped develop several valuable resources to support quality work and a skilled, credentialed New Resources for Home Energy Professionals Resources developed in FY 2024 include a cold climate air-source heat pump toolkit, a customizable slide deck for outreach to potential future workers, updates to and Freezer Energy Rating Search Tool, and an energy auditor resource repository that helps field workers quickly locate existing resources for accurate data collection and analysis of residential buildings.

Bridging the Solar Energy Gap Through Federal Assistance NREL helped develop DOE resources to expand solar energy to low-income through the Weatherization Assistance Program and the Low-Income Home Program. A technical report outlines pathways for program implementers to integrate solar their work, supported by a variety of online resources.

Highlighting Success Stories in the Weatherization NREL assisted with the launch of DOE's Weatherization Assistance Program Successes and Solutions Center , developing over 30 success stories in partnership with DOE and the weatherization network. The center provides a centralized and searchable hub for successful solutions that can improve processes or outcomes for staff and clients.

Energizing Rural Communities Prize NREL is administering the $15 million Energizing Rural Communities Prize on behalf of DOE's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations' Energy Rural or Remote Areas program. In FY 2024, NREL provided in-kind mentorship to support implementation of the 67 phase-one winners' innovative partnership and finance plans ahead of the phase-two submission deadline in July 2024.

Technical assistance activities included more than 25 webinars on a range of topics such as community engagement, project finance, and workforce In September 2024, the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations announced the 33 winners of the second phase of the prize.

Each phase-two prize winner received $200,000 for their partnership plans or innovative financing strategies to help rural and remote communities improve their energy systems and advance clean energy demonstration projects. Energy and Food Sovereignty Nexus Prize Launched in September 2024, NREL is administering the TCU Energy and Food Sovereignty Nexus Prize, with $4.

1 million available in potential awards for teams from Tribal Colleges Universities. The prize encourages student teams to develop and implement demonstration projects related to the intersection of energy and food sovereignty on Tribal lands. NREL is also contracting Power Connectors to provide support to teams, including webinars, virtual training, and one-on-one support.

REopt for Resilience Course In response to the increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as heat waves, hurricanes, and flooding, NREL developed a free online course to support states, local governments, and other organizations in enhancing their energy resilience.

This six-part course provides practical training on the use of the REopt web tool, guiding participants through essential topics to withstand power disruptions, including the prioritization of critical facilities, interpretation of utility bills, and setting of energy goals.

State and Local Planning for Energy Platform Adds Air Quality and Greenhouse Gas Emissions The State and Local Planning for Energy (SLOPE) Platform expanded support of community decarbonization efforts by adding data on greenhouse gas emissions and air quality. SLOPE's citywide estimated greenhouse gas emissions inventory can help energy planners understand sources of emissions and emissions reduction.

SLOPE also integrated new air quality data , allowing users to model air quality in various scenarios through 2050 and understand how different clean energy transition approaches can reduce pollution in Utility Bill Impact Dashboard Launches Launched in 2024, the Utility Bill Impact Dashboard equips homeowners and policymakers with data to assess the financial impacts of energy efficiency and electrification technologies.

Powered by NREL's ResStock modeling tool, the dashboard projects potential utility bill changes across various climate zones and state-specific conditions and includes Inflation Reduction Act impacts.

Partnerships and Collaborations NREL continues to deepen relationships across the national laboratory complex as well as with local and regional groups that directly support the implementation of energy By working together, NREL aims to deliver a full range of capabilities and "systems-thinking" solutions to address the most challenging issues in energy transition at the subnational "Addressing the complex energy challenges of today requires an integrated approach that leverages the best of social and behavioral science, cutting-edge analysis, and best-in-class research platforms.

NREL's State, Local, and Tribal Program is able to leverage all of the lab's access to tailor support to each of our partner jurisdictions' - Sherry Stout, laboratory program manager of NREL's State, Local, and Tribal Program "The State, Local, and Tribal Program is working hard to develop realistic solutions for real communities.

Those solutions touch every aspect of energy, from technical feasibility to economic and workforce development, to cost for the end users in those communities. The importance of this work can't be overstated."

- Jaquelin Cochran, acting associate laboratory director of NREL Strategic Energy Analysis and Decision Sciences directorate U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office Building Technologies Office Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Energy Transitions Initiative Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Geothermal Technologies Office Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations Office of Economic Impact and Diversity Office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs Office of State and Community Energy Programs Solar Energy Technologies Office Vehicle Technologies Office Water Power Technologies Office Wind Energy Technologies Office The following national laboratories directly contributed to the programs and projects in this report.

Learn more about DOE national laboratories.

Argonne National Laboratory Idaho National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Sandia National Laboratories Local and Regional Partners Coastal Studies Institute Hawaii Natural Energy Institute Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association Renewable Energy Alaska Project Get State, Local, and Tribal Updates Direct to Your Inbox Last Updated May 27, 2026