In New Mexico, the 3,000-member Jemez tribe of Native Americans is planning the nation’s first utility-scale solar project on tribal land.
For residents of New Mexico, it represents a future of cleaner energy. Most of the state is now powered by Colorado-based Tri-State Generation, whose generation mix includes approximately 70 percent coal, 24 percent natural gas and 5 percent oil.
Other utilities include Arizona Public Service (APS), which operates Units 1, 2 and 3 of the notoriously pollutive Four Corners (2,040-megawatt) coal-fired plant in Fruitland. Units 4 and 5 are jointly operated by APS, Southern California Edison, El Paso Electric, PNM, Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power.
The Four Corners power plant escaped regulation from 1960 to 2007, when the Sierra Club finally forced the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to set air pollution standards. Unfortunately, a November 2009 report by Environment New Mexico showed that the Four Corners plant is still the dirtiest power plant in the state, based on greenhouse gas emissions.
By providing clean, renewable solar electricity to supplant some of this “brown” energy, the Jemez tribe is helping both itself and its neighbors to breathe a little easier. The solar farm will also bring in some badly needed dollars, to a tribe that does not operate casinos or other wealth-building modules because of its distance from population centers.
Sited on 30 acres, and comprised of 14,850 solar panels, the proposed 4-megawatt installation – capable of providing electricity for about 600 homes – is finally at the stage of negotiating a power purchase agreement, after being on the drawing board since the middle of 2008.
The solar farm is expected to cost between $16 and $22 million, but could bring in at least that much over the next 25 years, which is the usual lifetime of a conventional solar panel.
Factor in grants, loans and tax credits, from federal and local governments and other entities – and the $20 million the federal government gives the Tribal Energy Program every year – and the Jemez may have a reliable source for funding the solar power plant, which will in turn provide the money needed to upgrade aging water systems, roads, schools and health facilities. Engineers and legal firms have also donated their expertise to make the project feasible.
The solar farm will also offset about 4,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is the same as removing 879 cars from the road or planting 117,853 trees. In fact, the benefits of the solar installation are such that energy experts and government officials feel solar energy on the 56 million acres held by recognized Native American tribes (in the continental U.S.) may be the winning chip in a move to transition the nation to a clean energy future.