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Indigenous values drive energy transformation in remote 91��Ƶn village

Editor's Note: AlexAnna Salmon is of Yup’ik and Aleut descent and serves as President of Igiugig Village Council, the governing body for Igiugig, a remote community of some 70 people in southwestern 91��Ƶ with no road access. Below is an excerpt from forthcoming University of 91��Ƶ Press publication 91��Ƶ's Energy Innovators, that shares the most remarkable story of a tiny village willing to experiment with river hydrokinetic technology placed in a stream which has provided the livelihood of Native peoples for millennia. 

 

By AlexAnna Salmon and the Native Village of Igiugig

April 25, 2025

In Igiugig, we approach sustainable energy through the frame of tribal sovereignty and the Indigenous values that guide our ways of life. The word Igiugig means “like a throat that swallows water” in the Yup’ik language. Our village is located where Lake Iliamna is swallowed by the Kvichak River. We have lived in this area for over 8,000 years. For most of our history, we moved around seasonally following the movement of the foods we depended upon and still depend upon. Our village settled in one place to open a school to keep our youth at home. The (ANCSA) followed, cementing our place as we became a year-round community. 

Like most 91��Ƶ villages, our initial experience with electrification was through diesel. It improves our quality of life in many ways, but it has heavy costs. It is dirty, it’s noisy, spills are inevitable, and in recent years we have come to understand the broader impacts to climate. And we are on the frontlines of those impacts. 

Our fuel used to be delivered by barge when the water was highest, typically in the fall. But with climate change, water levels became erratic. That made our energy system even more precarious, because we had to shift to delivery by air in small batches. In summer 2024, our fuel supplier had a fatal crash outside of Fairbanks and our community had to scramble to find a replacement provider. We also watched our bulk fuel farm of 114,000 gallons nearly collapse into the river as a result of climate-driven erosion. We did not want to be dependent on outside sources for our energy anymore.

Visioning a sustainable energy future 

It was in this context that our village started meeting around the year 2000 to do comprehensive community planning. We are a traditional community, gathering the way we have since time immemorial to talk about current challenges and putting forth solutions rooted in our indigenuity – our Indigenous ingenuity. We make decisions based on 100 percent consensus and all age groups are included.  

We decided as a community to diversify our energy system and applied to the state’s newly created in 2007. We received a grant in the very first round of awards of $750,000 to develop , a renewable energy source generated by the movement of a body of water – in our case, the Upper Kvichak River.

We realized we had an opportunity to use our permits (whose cost was covered by the grant) to test new types of hydrokinetic devices. Igiugig is a good test site because conditions are so difficult out here. If we can prove a technology or process in Igiugig, it can be done anywhere in the world. 

Hydropower and hydrokinetic power both refer to electricity derived from the energy of water. Hydropower uses falling water to spin a turbine, while hydrokinetic power uses natural flows in ocean currents, tides and inland waterways including rivers. Large hydropower projects that rely on dams can harm salmon runs.  

In 2012, four companies came out to Igiugig to explain their technologies. We narrowed the pool to two companies. The first one didn’t listen to any local advice, and grossly underestimated the power of our river. The device broke its mooring lines upon deployment – not once, but three times! They flipped the skiff they were using to install the device. They left their mess behind and we never heard from them again. 

The other company, (ORPC) honored our Indigenous knowledge and expertise. From the type of anchor used to the method of deploying their device, they learned from and leaned on the local community and knowledge. Over time, our relationship and our trust grew. 

We partnered with ORPC to apply for two federal grants and have been able to test and improve the design of their device (called RivGen) over the past decade. Because of the life cycle of salmon, we had to ensure our hydrokinetic device did not harm two sockeye salmon migrations each year (outmigrating smolt, and returning adults). We relied on our Indigenous knowledge to inform key design decisions to protect the salmon. The RivGen turbine has pontoons and mounts on the river itself. The pontoons are filled with air so they float but can also be filled with water so they sink to the bottom, held in place with an anchor. The turbines can be turned off or removed from the river when needed.

Sovereignty sets the stage for community energy goals 

Years ago, our community adopted a goal to achieve 50% diesel fuel reduction by 2030 from a 2019 baseline. In addition to our hydrokinetic efforts, we completed a wind study and a wood biomass feasibility study. Some community members transitioned their homes with wind turbines or solar installations. We got a grant to purchase land for a local wind farm. We started putting up our own wind turbines, and entered a partnership to explore larger wind turbines that would serve the community. We also received a grant from the state’s Renewable Energy Fund for a 200-kW solar array, planned for installation in 2025. Once installed and integrated with battery energy storage, the project is expected to reduce diesel fuel used for electricity generation by approximately 36%.

For us, it is about more than energy. Energy is the mode we used to build our capacity. Igiugig has used a tribal sovereignty approach to our energy transition so our energy efforts strengthen our nation, governance, and wellbeing. We are not the problem to be solved. We are the answer. 

Although Igiugig is a tiny community, our work has helped our hydrokinetic partner explore other opportunities in 91��Ƶ, such as the electrification of the Anchorage port using . We still have a journey ahead in our energy transition, but our compass is pointed in the direction of self-determination and a more sustainable future for our community.