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55 million acres of land in the United States are controlled by
Native American tribes.
Those lands hold within them the potential for roughly 535 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of wind energy per year and 17 trillion kWh of annual solar power capacity, or more than four times the electricity generated in the U.S. each year. The Jemez Pueblo band in New Mexico will be the first Native tribe to install a grid-tied, utility-scale solar power plant on its lands, contributing up to 4 megawatts of solar power to the electric grid.
The primary goal behind the solar plant, beside the sacred tradition of caring for the Earth, is to improve life for the Pueblo reservation’s 3,000 residents. Poverty is a profound problem on reservations across the country, with unemployment frequently doubling the national average. Solar and wind power offer, at minimum, a way for tribes to become self-sustaining, and at best, a way to bring in much-needed revenue for members.
The Jemez Pueblo solar plant will cost $22 million to build, occupying 30 acres of desert landscape and housing 14,850 solar panels. It is estimated that the 4-MW installation will bring in $25 million over the next 25 years, allowing the tribe to upgrade its drinking water system and replace lagoons it uses for wastewater treatment.
