Visions of Solar for Kootenai County

KEA’s Climate Action Team is advocating for renewable energy development in Kootenai County and recently visited two of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s solar installations. The Tribe’s aggressive goals for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and resilience are obvious when you pull into their offices in Plummer. Clearly visible on top of a nearby hill are solar panels providing power to their senior housing which is also heated and cooled by high-efficiency heat pumps!

We met with Dr. Laura Laumatia, the Environmental Programs Manager for the Tribe, and learned that the Tribe has three solar installations providing a total of 100kW to senior housing, tribal offices, and their Coeur Center in Worley. The Tribe funded these projects through DOE grants with assistance from Bonneville Environmental Foundation and the Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund and was even able to train ten community members as solar installation technicians during panel installation.

Dr. Laura Laumatia with Bill Irving and Dr. Craig Cooper of the Climate Action Team

Solar energy is now the cheapest source of energy and is the top priority for the Climate Action Team’s advocacy efforts. Our goal is to increase our community’s energy resilience, lower our energy costs, and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, whose emissions threaten the natural beauty of the community we all love.