Navajo Nation Grows Solar

Navajo Nations first solar project now producing enough electricity for about 13,000 homes

August 29, 2017 (AP via AZ Central)

“A giant array of solar panels near the famed sandstone buttes of Monument Valley has begun producing electricity for the Navajo Nation at a time when the tribe is bracing for the loss of hundreds of jobs from the impending closure of a nearby coal-fired power plant…The Kayenta Solar Facility is the first utility-scale solar project on the Navajo Nation, producing enough electricity to power about 13,000 Navajo homes…The plant comes at a time when the area's energy landscape is shifting…The coal-fired Navajo Generating Station near Page is set to close in December 2019, leaving a site that both tribal and private entities say has the potential for renewable energy development…The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which owns the solar plant, said the project advances clean energy on the reservation long known for fossil fuel development…[It should prove] to investors, developers and tribal communities that renewable energy projects are possible on the reservation…” click here for more

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