This diary first appeared Sunday as a segment of First Nations News & Views, an element of the "Invisible Indians" project created by navajo and me. You can read Sunday's complete 13th edition here and all previous editions here.
To’Hajiilee, N.M., home of a non-contiguous part of the Navajo Nation also known as the Cañoncito Indian Reservation,
may soon be home to the largest commercial solar photovoltaic farm in the United States. If so, it will be 50 percent larger than the one Apple plans for its data center in North Carolina. Environmental reviews have been completed and found no significant negative impacts. All that remains before construction begins is getting contracts signed for power purchases
The 30-megawatt Shandiin operation on 250 acres of the 77,000-acre reservation will provide electricity for more than 6,000 homes. Shandiin means "sunbeams" in Diné, the language of the Navajo. With a population of only some 1700, the To’Hajiilee band will have plenty of extra electricity to sell power to the Public Service Company of New Mexico, which serves Albuquerque just 22 miles away. A major transmission line in close proximity to the site greatly reduces the cost of the project, but it is still estimated at $124 million. The band is thinking of selling electricity to municipalities, the federal government and directly to the PSCo.
Meanwhile, the 3000-member Jemez Pueblo 25 miles further north is now in its third year of
planning a $22-million commercial solar installation of its own. It's a 4-megawatt project that will provide electricity to 1400 homes, on and off pueblo lands. That could ultimately bring in $1 million in revenue annually. Jemez Pueblo is also
on the verge of drilling its first test well to see if geothermal power is practical for use on its lands.
Each solar project recently received for pre-construction purposes about $300,000 in federal grants from the U.S. Department of Energy's Tribal Energy Program, sharing with other tribes their portion of a $6.5-million appropriation for 19 projects. Financing for construction of the solar farm will come from grants, private investors, tribal and pueblo resources, and loan guarantees. No completion dates have been set. But once power purchase agreements are arranged, construction could take as few as nine months. That means the Shandiin project could be generating electricity by May 2013.
"I think if we're able to find a power buyer fairly quickly, we certainly ought to be breaking ground this fall. That's our goal," said Rob Burpo, president of First American Financial Advisors, Inc., one of the consulting groups working with To'Hajiilee.[...]
Her boots covered in fine yellow dust, Delores Apache, (To'Hajiilee band of Navajo) president of To'Hajiilee Economic Development Inc., walks across the spot where the solar panels will be situated.
Delores Apache
For her, the project is about more than gaining a foothold in a new industry. She ticks off a list of what revenue from the plant would mean for her community: a daycare center, programs for senior citizens and veterans, better roads, more efficient wells for drawing water, language preservation programs and scholarships for youngsters.
"It's going to mean a whole lot," Apache said. "We have no means of economic development. No dollars. We don't have anything at all."
To’Hajiilee isn't the only place Navajos hope to put up solar. The Navajo Nation, whose overall reservation spreads across 27,400 square miles, the size of Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey combined, is using its share of the recent DOE grant to explore the possibility of building solar farms totaling 4,000 megawatts on its lands in northwest New Mexico. That would double the existing level of commercial solar photovoltaic electricity operations in the entire United States and generate enough power for 800,000 homes.
In a Washington and Lee Law Review article last year, attorney Ryan Dreveskracht wrote:
“Solar projects can be a rallying point, allowing tribes to come together collectively to pursue their own objectives in their own way, promoting cultural awareness, and creating a self-image that has been missing in many communities for years.”
But there are
profound concerns among leaders and other members of tribes that have been screwed for centuries by outsiders who told Indians what their best interests were and then proved self-interest was the real motive by ripping off the tribes. So when the talk is about outside investors putting up money for energy projects, the bullshit antennae start vibrating like crazy. For this reason, “Tribes need to … establish clear business plans, and create knowledgeable workforces of their own,” Dreveskracht wrote.
The Department of Interior hopes to open more public land for wind and solar projects, but these often run into opposition, sometimes from environmentalists worried about damage to endangered fauna and flora, sometimes from residents for NIMBY reasons. These objections can generate lawsuits that take years to wind their way to settlements or court judgments. Tribal lands, however, are governed under different rules and an increasing focus on Indian sovereignty has meant tribes have more latitude to make their own decisions in the matter of energy and other projects.
A new Department of Interior rule will fast-track leasing agreements on Indian trust lands, giving more power to the tribes and curtailing oversight by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But it is seen as a double-edged dagger. While it is designed to slice through red tape that has stalled tribal decision-making, it can also lead to corruption and yet more rip-offs.
While Indian lands hold the potential to supply four times as much electricity as needed by the entire nation, most of that land is in the West and Far West, putting it out of reach of Eastern markets, at least until low-leakage Ultra-High Voltage transmission lines are in place, which could be a long time. And so far, politics and other foot-dragging have kept solar projects from happening. Now, however, with prices for solar cells continuing to make steep drops and the financial and other support of the Obama administration, projects like those at To’Hajiilee and the Jemez Pueblo aren't the only ones likely to come on line in the next decade.
And solar isn't the only renewable source making headway. The Kumeyaay of Campo in southern California have installed 25 wind turbines that on a good day generate at a rate of 50 megawatts of electricity, far more than the small tribe needs for its own use. It plans to install an additional series of turbines capable of generating at the rate of another 160 megawatts. The total would be enough to provide power for 50,000 homes.