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The Navajo Nation Solar Project
Location: Navajo Nation
Owner: Residents in the Navajo Nation
Capacity: 128kW
Modules: 80-watt KC80 Kyocera modules
Online: since 2000
Developer: Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
Cost: $ 2,000,000
A solar project of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) is bringing electricity to the homes of people living in remote areas of the reservation through a partnership with Sandia Laboratories and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In a program conducted in 2000, two hundred stand-alone 640W PV systems with batteries were installed in the Navajo Nation.
NTUA is an enterprise of the Navajo Nation and provides utility services to the Navajo People. NTUA purchases electrical power from off the Navajo reservation and transmits that power to homes throughout the 25,000-square-mile Navajo Nation, which covers northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico and southeastern Utah.
The project is a continuation of a solar electric home experiment conducted by Sandia and the NTUA in the early 1990s. Seventy-one 250W home systems were installed during this time using a $300,000 grant from DOE as well as money from state and local utility subsidies.
DOE seed money from an earlier program led to NTUA realizing enough value in PV to invest $2 million of their own money. The customers pay for the systems through a 15-year lease purchase agreement and NTUA performs the maintenance needed to ensure that the systems remain in working condition. After 15 years, the ownership and maintenance of the systems will be turned over to the customers.
Sandia's PV laboratory houses one of the units, where engineers test potential problems. Sandia also trained the NTUA technicians by showing them proper installation and maintenance techniques. Sandia engineers travel once a month to Navajo country to provide technical support. They go to the sites with an NTUA technician who shows customers how to maintain and use the equipment properly.
NTUA decided to offer this alternative power source to its customers due to the high cost of stringing wire over parts of the reservation's rural terrain. Navajo Nation estimates that 18,000 out of 48,000 homes on the reservation are without electricity. The PV systems give people access to electricity used to power lights, radios, televisions and computers.
NTUA’s efforts to bring renewable energy sources to the Navajo Nation continued after the project in 2000. In 2004, hybrid PV/wind systems consisting of an 880W PV array and a 400W wind turbine were installed in sixty-three houses. This brought the total number of renewable energy projects established through the partnership with NTUA, Sandia and the DOE since 1993 to about 340.
References and Additional Information:
Sandia National Laboratory’s News Release July 13, 2000
Solar Electric Power Association’s News of Solar Energy in Communities, November 01, 2000
