The U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently announced more than $100 million to aid the Navajo Nation in its green energy transition.
This investment from the Powering Affordable Clean Energy Program will finance solar-powered facilities and a battery energy storage system for the not-for-profit Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.
It’s supposed to generate more than 30 megawatts of renewable energy for its roughly 40,000 tribal customers in rural Arizona and New Mexico.
“We’ll be able to power about 13,000 homes each year,” said NTUA general manager Walter Haase. “So it allows us to have some power supply to connect up those families that don’t have service today.”
About 10,400 households still live without electricity on Navajoland. So not only will this federal funding help light up more homes, Haase explained it’ll make the entire electrical grid more reliable — meaning fewer power supply spikes.
“By having battery storage, we’re now able to supply that cost-effective economic power that’s produced during the day,” he added, “in those couple hours when the price is very expensive. That is a cost savings.”
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Beyond being seen and heard in the negotiating room where water decisions are handled, tribes are also having to navigate unprecedented institutional shifts from the Biden administration back to Trump that, in turn, potentially hinder their sovereignty. -
Navajo tribal officials announced the first steps in restoring some land previously used for uranium ore mining on the Navajo Nation. -
While opponents – like the San Carlos Apache Tribe and nonprofit Apache Stronghold – claim things are moving too quickly, the Superior Community Working Group has met to address possible mitigations and benefits each quarter for the last seven years. -
President Donald Trump is looking to reopen Alcatraz Island, which once housed 19 Hopi men who didn’t want their children going to Indian boarding schools. -
Scottsdale Recovery Continued is receiving nearly $500,000 from the state to support Native American victims of fraudulent sober living homes.
