MENDOCINO CO., 7/22/25 — Guidiville Rancheria, the 44-acre home of the federally recognized Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, lies about 2 miles east of Ukiah. In 2023, the tribe began the process of gaining a grant for the installation of a solar-powered microgrid on its land.
The funds were awarded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and work began early in 2025, but then the funds were abruptly frozen under the second Trump administration. The tribe quickly regrouped, obtaining a bridge loan with the help of Portland, Oregon-based clean energy consulting firm 7Skyline.
Now the project is back on track to provide energy sovereignty — meaning the tribe will be able to produce and store its own electricity..
The BIA grant — $3.55 million — was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, for installation of the solar-powered microgrid, stakeholder engagement, planning and workforce development. Michael Derry, economic development director for the tribe, posited a possible explanation for the frozen funds.
“As far as we can tell, it is part of an overall effort to gain control over and look at every little bit of spending in the federal budget, until they get their head around it, try to make sense of it,” Derry said. “They did this with a number of different tribal programs.”
According to Bob Stuart, who oversees utility interconnection consulting for 7Skyline, a microgrid is a small part of the main electricity grid, but it is able to function as a standalone grid. The Guidiville microgrid will use solar panels and hydrogen fuel cells to capture and store energy.
The bridge loan was granted by the San Diego-based BQuest Foundation, a private foundation that provides loans for projects, particularly housing and climate-related, in communities that don’t have adequate access to other funding opportunities. BQuest explains on its site that when loaned funds are paid back, the money is loaned out again to other energy or housing projects.
7Skyline founder and CEO Jennifer Rouda said the Guidiville project can serve as an example for other tribes looking for energy sovereignty.
“I’m really excited to see this get built here, and we will definitely be sharing this as a lesson learned and a possibility for other small tribal communities that might have the same type of need,” Rouda said.
Project lead Sean Ahern with Timberline Renewable Solutions, who is managing the project and putting together the team of partners, said the tribe will own and control the power generated by the microgrid.
“It essentially allows them to be masters of their own domain, which, in other words, gives them actual energy sovereignty,” Ahern said. “They own the power, they have the power, they control the power.”
Emtel Energy USA, Colusa Indian Energy and Harnyss are also partners on the project. Emtel will provide energy storing supercapacitor technology, and Harnyss will provide hydrogen-storing technology for the microgrid battery fuel cells. Colusa will install the solar panels. The project will use atmospheric water capture technology to produce hydrogen for fuel cells on-site, according to Pete Baldwin of Harnyss.
Derry explained that because the microgrid’s energy storage will use hydrogen instead of lithium, the system is less impactful on the environment. Hydrogen produced from the atmospheric water capture will be made on-site rather than being shipped like lithium would have to be. Lithium batteries can also pose a serious risk for dangerous fires.
“We think the system, what we have, is one of the cleanest and least impactful to accomplish the goal,” Derry said. “Our goal is to lower the cost, do something better for the planet and do that in a responsible way that not only helps us, but helps the broader community. And that’s really the thinking behind the whole effort.”
The microgrid will have nearly 1,000 solar panels capable of producing 500 kilowatts of power, equal to 500,000 watts. It will be able to store 1.5 megawatts, enough stored energy to power all 20 homes on the rancheria with all lights on and running all electrical appliances for two full days. The project is past the design phase and is now getting approval for utility interconnection. It’s expected that ground will be broken in September to install the panels and other infrastructure.
The grid will also power 16 additional housing units currently being built as part of California’s Housing and Community Development Department Homekey to provide housing for homeless people or those at risk of being homeless. A requirement of the Homekey grant is training for workforce development, so five members of the tribe have been hired to build the houses. Julian Galarza, one of the five, explained that the materials being used to build the homes –– steel framing, Styrofoam and GigaCrete (a concrete alternative) –– are more cost-effective, sustainable and fireproof than traditional lumber. Galarza said the crew is new to this, and are learning as they go, but the process of building the houses is quick and simple.
The project has already caught the attention of the California Energy Commission (CEC), according to Project Lead Ahern. The CEC is planning to test some of the same technology being used in the Guidiville microgrid project at its test site at Miramar Marine Corps Base in Southern California. The CEC is excited about the prospects for other projects.
Rouda of 7Skyline noted that this is not unusual when it comes to energy solutions in tribal communities.
“Tribes that are moving in energy often are testing innovative ideas that are a perfect fit for their specific community, which can be all different geographies, different types of energy resources, different types of constraints,” Rouda said. “Michael [Derry] is an energy champion for the Tribe, who has helped find just the right fit for what his community needs, and so other Tribal communities are looking to that like, ‘What’s been a fit?’”
The project will shine a light in more ways than one.
“Guidiville is definitely going to be the beacon for innovative renewables here by the end of the year,” Ahern said.
Correction: The process describing the microgrid’s storage system was incorrectly stated. The microgrid’s primary storage will use supercapacitors made of recyclable graphene, which is made in a lab and therefore less environmentally impactful than lithium. Hydrogen fuel cells will be a secondary backup system to power the microgrid. The official name of the tribe is the Guidiville Rancheria of California. We regret the errors.