The closure of the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station brought an end to an era on the Navajo Nation, but the tribe is transitioning to solar.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority built a solar field near Kayenta in 2017 and expanded it two years later.
The nonprofit recently announced that it will build a 200-megawatt solar plant near Cameron, and it should come online at the end of 2023.
The utility will work with Salt River Project, which wants to expand its renewable energy portfolio.
“So it will be, probably pretty much like the first one," said Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer, "with a lot of solar panels being constructed and put out there. Again the equivalent of 200 megawatts.”
The project will create jobs, bring revenue to the tribe and electricity to a number of Navajo families.
