By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Senator Harry Reid joined with leaders and members of the Moapa Band of Paiutes last week to celebrate the start of construction on a 250 megawatt solar generating power plant, the first of its kind to be built in Indian Country.
A special groundbreaking ceremony was held at the construction site on Friday morning, March 22. Tribal members were transported by bus to the remote site which was located only about two miles north of the Paiute Travel Plaza. The site could only be accessed by following a frontage road which begins near the U.S. Highway 93 exit at the Love’s Truck Stop.
The construction project, being built by First Solar, Inc., will install large arrays of photovoltaic panels on a 2,000 acre segment of tribal land.
The proposed plant has a Power Purchase Agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to deliver renewable energy to Los Angeles residents for the next 25 years. The plant is anticipated to be fully operational by the end of 2015.
“This is a day for celebration and for reflection,” said Reid. “The celebration is evident. This is the first utility-scale project on tribal land and it will deliver much needed economic benefits to the Tribe and to Nevada.”
Reid also took a moment to reflect on the early history of the Muddy River Reservation. He pointed out that Congress originally allotted 2.5 million acres to the Moapa Band back in 1873. Two years later, that allotment was reduced to only 1,000 acres.
“That is how, I’m sorry to say, we have treated Native Americans all across the country for a long, long time,” Reid said.
Reid added that the land allotment for the reservation was increased by Congress to 7,500 acres in 1980.
“So, in reflection, as we drive over this land and see all of these rights-of-way with power lines; which hampers the tribal use of the lands they were given in 1980; I think that one of the things I am going to do when I get back to Washington is this: we are going to introduce legislation to increase the size of tribal lands here on this reservation,” Reid said.
This statement resulted in enthusiastic applause from the audience.
Reid stated that this would allow for even more renewable energy projects and other economic development intiatives to take place.
“This is only the beginning,” Reid said.
In a brief speech before the groundbreaking, Tribal Chairwoman Aletha Tom, spoke of the rich heritage of the Paiute people.
“For centuries, we have lived as hunters and farmers in the drylands, the washes and Mesquite slopes, the banks of the warm Muddy River,” Tom said. “We have long understood how to make the desert plentiful.”
Tom said that the solar generation project was just the latest in the process of the tribe making its living off of the land in a sustainable way.
“In recent years, it became clear that a renewable energy project was the best way for the tribe to preserve land yet bring monies to our people,” Tom said.
Tom gave credit to two previous Tribal Chairmen Darren Daboda and William Anderson who had worked through the earlier stages of the project. Daboda had signed the original agreement with solar power developer K-Road back in 2010 to get the idea started. Anderson had followed the project through much of the regulatory process and had overseen the acquisition of the project by First Solar, Inc. late last year, Tom said.
“This has been a great way to begin becoming a leader in Indian Country and create a template for other tribes to follow,” Tom said. “If our small tribe can accomplish this, then others can also. There are endless opportunities for the tribe in renewable energy and we have a perfect area to build such projects.”
First Solar, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jim Hughes said that his company is honored to be part of this landmark project. He talked about the economic benefits it would bring to the tribe and to the region.
“The project will create about 400 construction jobs and eight ongoing operations and maintenance jobs,” Hughes said.
Hughes added that First Solar is working closely with the Moapa Band to ensure that the company hires as many qualified tribal members as possible.
“We have held several job fairs focused on hiring tribal members, including one last week,” Hughes said. “We will be holding more in the weeks to come. And we will open them up to surrounding tribes and to Las Vegas residents.”
Hughes said that the project would also provide benefits to southern California through the Purchase Power Agreement.
“When completed, the facility will generate enough clean energy to serve about 93,000 typical homes, displacing some 313,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually,” Hughes said. “That is the equivalent of taking about 60,000 cars off the road.”
LADWP Director of Power Systems Randy Howard stressed the importance of the Moapa Paiute project in the utility’s overall portfolio strategy.
“We are tranforming our entire utility,” Howard said. “In the next 15 years we will completely change our resource mix and 70 percent of our current resources will be changed out.”
Howard said that projects like this one are pivotal to making that change happen. He pointed the audience’s attention to the two large transmission lines running across the desert nearby.
“Both of them terminate in coal burning plants,” he said. “And both are feeding power into the city of Los Angeles. There are commitments to eliminate the coal off of both of those lines and reposition them for renewable resources.”
Howard explained that the Paiute project would be instrumental in offsetting the coal power that the LADWP currently receives from the Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona.
“We as a city, and as a utility, have committed to divest of our Navajo share by 2015,” Howard said. “So this project allows us to get off of coal by then. And incidentally, there is also a committment by the owners of Navajo to shut down one of the units permanently so there will be no more emissions there.”
Howard said that the LADWP was also working through one more project where it would acquire the Apex natural gas burning power plant just north of Las Vegas. This would be utilized in conjunction with solar facilities to provide reliable replacement to those coal burning energy resources, Howard said.
“As the sun comes down and before it comes up in the morning, we will use that (natural gas) project,” Howard said. “Then as the sun comes up we will be shutting it down.”
Reid, Hughes, Howard and tribal leaders all participated in an official groundbreaking ceremony on the site. Afterwards, all in attendance gathered hand-in-hand in a large circle and performed a ceremonial Native American Circle Dance to celebrate the occasion.
