Transcript for the DOE Office of Indian Energy Energizing Indian Country: Southwest Solar video.
Joe Bresette: Here at Tonto Apache, we have one install project, and we are in the plans for another project. The first project consists of solar photovoltaics that generate about 280 kilowatts of energy. We installed the panels on the tribal administrative building and the tribal community gymnasium, and we also installed panels on some canopies, which we expect over the next 30 years to save us about one and a half million dollars. And the new project is very similar to this. We're going to do a lot of electrical offset at tribal facilities. Those will include our wastewater treatment plant, which is a pretty high energy use facility, and the other main facility is the tribal market.
And the sizing of the project will be almost identical to this one, and we expect again to save in the area of 60 to 70 percent of the energy use once the project comes online.
Gail Haozous: Well energy is an important issue to me because I believe that as a tribe, the sovereignty of our nation, we should depend on ourselves, and that the sun is free. We know that we never are probably going to own the electric company. So the question is how can we provide electricity for ourselves if we have to.
Nathan Nash: We have very unreliable energy. It seems like every monsoon that we have energy go out maybe once a week for a few hours while it gets fixed. After we developed it and created the KYAY radio station, it has become a vital part of the reservation, and in our case, when the power went out for about seven days and we had a state of emergency, the solar was the only thing keeping it alive and able to broadcast where the water stations were going to be at, when they were going to start passing out batteries and other basic essentials needed.
Gail Haozous: The fact that the radio stayed on it opened the eyes for all our community members to see what solar can do for us.
Joe Bresette: Its communications reach everybody from our town 30 miles away to our other town 18 miles away to the main center here. We're able to broadcast information that is needed, community events, cultural events that happen, and it has become a real hub for people to give out vital information.
Joe Bresette: How did Department of Energy help us get these projects going? Well first of all, they provide great opportunity for funding. As we were beginning to try to implement solar or renewable, had looked at a couple different financing possibilities, and they weren't attractive because they're either too complicated or they didn't provide the guaranteed cost savings in order to implement because it's expensive to implement. So without Department of Energy help, we wouldn't be enjoying the savings we are even today.
Gail Haozous: Everything that was energy related that we did in our office came from the DOE funding. Any question that we had, we had no problem picking up the phone and asking them. They were very helpful at providing technical assistance from the beginning of our grant even after they were done. So I think the fact that the Department of Energy is able to offer assistance in developing energy, especially to tribes, is really helpful because we have the land mass and we have the ability to create way beyond what we even thought in the beginning could be possible. I believe that the future is renewable energies, whether it's solar or other forms of renewables, and I think that's what we're looking for constantly is what will sustain our community.
Joe Bresette: I find it very exciting for us to help the community reduce the energy needs, and I believe that this kind of project is great for any community, tribal, non-tribal.
Gail Haozous: I believe that San Carlos can serve as an example to other tribes. There's still so much more that we need to do, and I'm looking forward to what possibilities there are because there's just a ton of stuff for us to get done.
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