The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Trap the Sun to Offset Energy Costs

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR), a union of three tribes: Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla, turned a strip of its land near the Blue Mountains in Oregon into nearly $12,000 in annual energy cost savings and an almost 23-ton reduction in carbon dioxide emissions each year with its newly installed solar photovoltaic (PV) array and light-emitting diode (LED) retrofit—thanks in part to funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy.