Grant opportunity could help Tribes develop bioenergy resources

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs on Sept. 3 announced it is providing funding to hire consultants to identify, evaluate or assess the market for energy or mineral resources that a Tribe will process, use or develop.

According to a notice published in the Federal Register, the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development, through its Division of Energy and Mineral Development, is soliciting grant proposals from Tribes and tribal energy development organizations for technical assistance funding to hire the consultants.

The notice explains that the grants will support projects that conduct resource inventories or assessments, feasibility studies, or other pre-development studies necessary to process, use and develop energy and mineral sources. These resources include, but are not limited to, woody biomass or waste biomass for heat or electricity; transportation fuels; hydroelectric, solar or wind generation; geothermal heating or electricity production; district heating; other forms of distributed energy generation; oil, natural gas, geothermal, and helium; sand and gravel, coal, precious minerals and base minerals, such as lead, cooper and zinc.

The projects may include, but are not limited to initial resource exploration; defining potential targets for development; performing a market analysis to establish production/demand for a commodity; performing economic evaluation and analysis of the resource; baseline studies related to energy and mineral projects; and other pre-development studies necessary to promote the use and development of energy and mineral resources.

There is no cost sharing or matching requirement for funding. According to the notice, the DEMD expects to make 25 to 30 awards through the program ranging in value from $10,000 to $2.5 million. Applications will be accepted through Dec. 2. Additional information is available on the Federal Register website.