Tribal Program

GRID Alternatives Inland Empire was awarded $2.05 million to install a 994 kilowatt (kW) ground-mounted solar array in partnership with the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians and the Anza Electric Cooperative, Inc. The community solar system will be sited on Santa Rosa Tribal lands in Riverside County, an area designated as a low-income community, and will benefit approximately 38 homes on tribal land and 150-250 other low-income households served by Anza Electric.

At a May 16 celebration of the new project, known as the Children of the Sun Solar Initiative (or COSSI), people from the many collaborating organizations that pulled it together cheered the start of work that is expected to save the tribe $2.8 million over the next 30 years. 

“This project is born of fire. The 2016 Cayuse Mountain Fire stimulated us to look at going solar because of the impact it had on the reservation,” said Tim Horan, executive director of the Spokane Tribal Housing Authority. “The Children of the Sun Solar Initiative puts us on a path to energy independence, climate resiliency and tribal power sovereignty — eventually we could be self-sufficient.”

The fierce blaze consumed 14 homes and displaced nearly 50 people on the Spokane Indian Reservation. It burned more than 18,000 acres, destroyed 14 tribal homes, and cut power to main administrative buildings and water supply. But the community is trying to get back to normal life with a project that “is born of fire” — a solar initiative that is designed to foster resilience, autonomy, and sustainability.

“Alternative energy is now becoming a significant discussion in all our communities across the nation and most importantly on Navajo,” said Ray Griego, Energy Systems instructor at NTU. “We have been moving steadily from fossil fuel here on the Navajo Nation, and this shift presents the challenge for our younger generation to explain how to successfully accomplish the transition.”

This piece highlights an upcoming community solar installation that will bring renewable power to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in southwestern Colorado. GRID Alternatives has helped build low-income community solar projects since 2015, with the help of community members and volunteers.

The resulting solar array in Towaoc (pronounced toy-yak) will bring power to the 2,100 people living nearby. It will give the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe — one of three Ute Indian tribes in the southwestern United States — enough renewable energy to begin the first phase of a dream they’ve been developing for 10 years.