Paiutes Host Interior Secretary Visit: Federal Approval On Third Moapa Solar Plant Announced

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Band of Paiutes and international solar energy development company, First Solar, hosted top Obama administration officials on a tour of a newly constructed solar power generating plant on Thursday, September 15.

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, staff members, and members of the media, toured the Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project, a new 250-megawatt solar plant recently completed on the 2,000 acres of tribal land located directly across Interstate 15 from the Moapa Paiute Travel Plaza.
Equipped with four million fixed-tilt photovoltaic panels, the new plant has the equivalent area of roughly 500 football fields under energy-gathering glass modules.

With a contractual obligation to provide 250 megawatts of power, the facility has been “overdesigned” to be able to produce more than that. Thus if one portion of the vast landscape is under a cloud cover, other areas of the plant can be dialed up to make up the difference, according to First Solar officials.
The power generated by the plant will be delivered, through NV Energy transmission lines, to LADWP in southern California, according to the power purchasing agreement. It has the capacity to supply power to about 100,000 homes.

The plant is the first utility-scale solar generating facility to be built on reservation land in the U.S.
But if all goes as planned, it will not be the last opportunity for Indian tribes to benefit from the renewable energy industry, according to Jewell.
“We hope that this charts a path for a brighter future for all of Indian Country as these resources are harnessed” Jewell said in a brief address to attendees of the event. “Indian Country will be a key player in our renewable energy future.”

Jewell’s visit to the Moapa Reservation was the final stop on a three-state tour to review some of the key points of the Obama administration’s effort to support renewable energy.
She visited Boston on Friday to see a wind blade testing facility which is expected to be a supplier in building up off-shore wind energy generation in the Atlantic.
Then on Wednesday, she visited Palm Springs, Calif. to celebrate the signing of a desert renewable conservation plan regarding 10 million acres of public lands. This plan was completed in consultation with 40 different Indian tribes, she said.
“It identifies places where (renewable energy facilities) are appropriate,” Jewell said. “It also identifies places where they should be off limits: areas of conservation like viewsheds of communities. All of that has been taken into account in that incredible plan.”

During her statement, Jewell announced the federal government’s approval of yet another solar plant now being proposed on the Moapa Paiute Reservation. The Aiya plant project, also being built by First Solar, would generate 100 megawatts of power, enough to supply 25,000 homes, Jewell said.
The Aiya project is planned to be built on 900 acres of tribal land directly east of the tribal village; an area which straddles either side of State Highway 168 just northwest of Moapa.

Aiya is the third utility-grade solar project to receive approval on the Moapa Reservation. The second solar site approved was proposed by global renewable energy company, RES America; and was announced in 2014. This project is planned as a 200-megawatt installation located out on the far western corner of the Moapa Reservation land.

Neither the RES America project nor the new Aiya proposal have found a purchaser for the energy. Construction on both projects now await a power purchase agreement before commencing.
Jewell said that Aiya is the 60th renewable energy project approved by the Department of Interior on federal and tribal lands. These include 36 solar, 11 wind and 13 geothermal projects with about 15,500 megawatts of renewable energy capacity, enough to power roughly 5 million homes, she said.
“That is real progress towards the goal my boss gave me on taking the job which was 20,000 megawatts of renewable power on public lands by the year 2020,” Jewell said. “So we are well on our way to meeting that goal.”

Moapa Band of Paiutes Chairman Robert Tom said that the newly completed Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project, as well as the other two proposals, were a natural fit for the tribe.
“We consider ourselves earth’s stewards,” Tom told the assembled group. “Not just for the land you are standing on, but for the lands that stretch all around us. And we will be stewards for many generations to come. These projects are significant to our people because they respect the land. They create energy from natural resources and have minimal impacts on the environment.”

Tom said that the tribe had already seen significant economic benefits from the construction of the new solar facility. At the height of construction there were as many as 600 people employed in building the plant. About 150 of those were tribal members.

In its hiring of crew members, First Solar gave preference to Moapa Tribal members, according to company officials. Second preference went to Native Americans from other tribes. Then the hiring was opened to other qualified candidates.

Tom, who himself worked on the construction project for about a year before being elected as tribal chairman, said that the economic benefits had extended to the broader Moapa Valley community as well.
“They hired a lot of people from the outside (Moapa Valley) community,” Tom said in an interview with the Progress. “I recognized friends from the valley that I didn’t even know was working here until I came on site and noticed that they were working. I think it helped everyone.”
The newly built plant is still in its final testing phase and is not expected to go fully online until mid-November, according to First Solar Project Manager Geoff Dewhurst.

At that point, the plant will have a long-term operations workforce of only four people. Two of that four member crew will be young women from the Moapa Band.
According to Dewhurst, these two women had never been on a solar power site before they went to work at the Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project. But they showed so much interest and initiative that they were able to complete five years of senior electrical training within an 18 month period. They became certified electrical journeymen, Dewhurst said.
“They had the best work ethic and the best attitude,” Dewhurst added. “They really wanted to learn and they were at the right time in their life to pick it up. Those two will do most of the day-to-day running of the site once we are up.”