By 2025, Oregon must get a quarter of its electricity from renewable resources, as required by a law passed last session by the state Legislature. On the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, the tribes are looking at a variety of ways to tap the reservation's resources to generate green energy, in part to meet the state's expected need.

There's a new biomass plant in the permitting stage, studies on the prospects of wind power are under way, and the tribes are even considering geothermal potential on the reservation.

"We're pursuing renewable energy pretty aggressively in terms of looking at what we have," said Jim Manion, general manager of Warm Springs Power & Water Enterprises. "Our charge is to look at what energy resources we have on the reservation, and what can they do to help today's tribal government."

And the new biomass facility, in which the tribes would burn woody debris as a fuel to generate power, is first on its list.

Although Warm Springs already has a biomass plant, it is planning to build a new one that would produce more than five times the power.

The fuel supply for the facility, which would come from thinning small trees out of overcrowded forests, has been approved by the tribal council, Manion said. Now the facility, which has been designed to generate about 15.8 megawatts - enough power for more than 12,000 homes - is in the middle of the permitting process.

Warm Springs is also working on finalizing a deal with investors for the $45 million project to fund the new facility, said Cal Mukumoto, manager with the Warm Springs Biomass Project LLC. He said he hoped to have the financing settled in early 2008, at which point construction could go forward.

"Hopefully, toward the end of 2009 we'll be on the grid," Mukumoto said.

Further down the road, the tribes are looking at the possibility of setting up a wind farm on the reservation.

"We've identified that there is enough wind energy on the reservation for some form of a commercial wind development farm," Manion said.

In the Mutton Mountain area in the northeast corner of the reservation, the tribes have studied both the wind potential and the topography. Even by just looking at the area, though, trees are strong indicators of the wind, he said, and in that part of the reservation they show positive signs.

"We have trees in the Mutton Mountain area that are almost flat on one side," Manion said.

The tribes are now starting a new series of studies that will look at the environmental impacts of a commercial facility, he said. The study will include what roadwork would need to be done to transport the big turbines up to a facility, and what kind of effect it might have on the area's bird population, he said.

"It's to determine if it is viable, not just on a resources basis, but on an environmental basis as well," Manion said.

Warm Springs has also taken a preliminary look at the potential for tapping underground heat and steam as geothermal power, he said. A surface study indicates a high probability of geothermal power there. But at this point, that renewable option is on the back burner, he said.

The push for different renewables comes because, with the new renewable energy standards in place in Oregon, power utilities that previously had enough energy sources are now looking at buying new renewable power, he said. And the tribes are exploring whether they might sell any excess power.

"We're looking at several different things that may be able to contribute to that," Manion said.

Wind energy in particular is big, said Lou Torres, spokesman for the Oregon Department of Energy. The state is eighth in the country for wind energy production, with 438 megawatts installed and operational, he said, adding that one megawatt is enough to power about 800 single-family homes.

And wind energy is growing, he said, with another 919 megawatts of power approved and in the planning stages, and another 1,847 under review by the state.

"You're seeing a dramatic growth in wind energy," Torres said. "It makes sense: We have some great windy locations for those wind turbines."