The Delaware Nation, a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans whose official reservation is in Oklahoma, recently received $250,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to install a building integrated solar photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing system at the tribe’s governmental building.

The Delaware Nation – one of only 87 applicants for the funding, and the only Native American tribe chosen – wrote the grant application under the auspices of its Going Green Initiative, which aspires toward environmental stewardship.

Assisting the Delaware Nation in the application process, and acting as part of its “green” team, the Wind Hollow Foundation’s Theda McPheron-Keel helped draft the language describing the proposed solar array, which is expected to cover almost the entire roof of the government building in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

Frederick, Maryland-based Wind Hollow Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering Native Americans by encouraging and supporting self-sufficiency, including self sufficiency in energy resources through its economic development programs.

The grant was awarded through the DOE’s National Energy Technology Labs as an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). These grants, backed by $2.7 billion in funding, aim to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy use, and eliminate fossil fuel emissions by introducing clean, renewable technologies like solar energy, and are made available to local, state and regional government entities, U.S. territories, and Native American tribal units like the Delaware.

The solar array, which represents the first step in the tribe’s Going Green Initiative, will save the tribe almost $9,592 per year by cutting energy use 45,000 kilowatt-hours a year.

Similar projects are slated for the future, with the Delaware Nation proposing the introduction of a Green Technology Park on tribal land to house area businesses which focus on renewable energy technologies like solar, wind and biomass. The park is expected to not only trigger economic development, but create green jobs in an economy that typically sees high unemployment.

The technology park is part of a greater initiative, instituted in 2009, which saw the Delaware Nation tribal president Kerry Holton meeting with Trenton Mayor Douglas Palmer and entrepreneur Shelley Zieger at the Trenton Marriott to form an alliance to take advantage of opportunities provided under ARRA. The Delaware Nation owns a New Jersey casino.

The Delaware Nation originated in the New Jersey area, and only one-third of the tribe now lives in Oklahoma. At the 2009 meeting, the three discussed building a factory near Trenton to make solar panels or energy-efficient building materials.

In Oklahoma, the Delaware tribe already has a number of geothermal and biomass energy projects in operation, and could – with federal help and funding – sponsor additional solar or wind energy projects in Trenton, according to Holton, who stressed that discussions did not involve a casino.