Success also does not have to be measured by scale. Hughes


village sits along the Koyukuk River about 210 miles north of Fairbanks. Its slightly more than 100 residents go through 40,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually in order to generate enough electricity. To get the fuel to residents in remote vil- lages, Korean War-era planes fly in the barrels of diesel. Resi- dents who use more than 500 kilowatts per month pay utility companies more than .70 per kilowatt hour, nearly four times the average of other Alaska residents.


30 SPRING 2022 AMERICAN INDIAN


In September of 2016, the DOE Office of Indian Energy


Policy and Programs provided a $623,900 grant to build a 120-watt solar photovoltaic grid for the village. The grant aimed to cut the diesel fuel use by 25 percent. According to a 2021 annual report, by November 13, 2021, Hughes vil- lage ran on electricity with diesel generators completely off, and no residents lost power. “Just seeing it and seeing how it operates gives people a different mindset,” wrote David Pelunis-Messier, the rural energy coordinator for


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