Picuris Pueblo 2018 Project

NOTE: Project pages are being updated regularly to reflect changes, if any; however, some of the information may be dated.

Summary

The Picuris Pueblo completed the Tribe’s first 1-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) system in December 2017. Under this project, the Tribe will install Phase II which is an approximately and additional 750-kilowatt (kW) of new solar PV capacity. The new solar PV system will be co-located with the existing Phase I solar array and leverage some of the existing electrical infrastructure.

In December 2017, Picuris Pueblo completed construction of the Tribe’s first  1-MW solar PV system. This (Phase I) solar system is located along State Highway 75 within Picuris Pueblo and is interconnected with the Kit Carson Electric Cooperative’s (KCEC’s) electrical grid under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Revenue generated from sale of electricity to KCEC under the PPA is used by the Tribe to offset much of the electricity expenses incurred by the Tribe to power community members’ homes and tribal facilities.

Building on the success of the completed solar system, the Tribe intends to develop another 750-kW solar PV system (Phase II). The primary objective of Phase II is to serve the electrical loads of the Pueblo first, and the secondary objective is to sell excess energy, if any, to KCEC under terms to be negotiated. The primary objective of serving the electrical needs of the Pueblo first is building resiliency and energy self-sufficiency. Being a rural and semi-isolated community, the Pueblo of Picuris has vulnerability to catastrophic events which could lead to a total loss of electric power. For example, the ongoing forest fires in Northern New Mexico have burned over 300,000 acres and threatened the Pueblo. A reliable power supply within the Pueblo offers resiliency to the Pueblo to recover quickly from disasters and satisfies the Pueblo’s goals of energy security and independence. 

The Phase II system will consist of the procurement and installation of an approximately 750-kW ground mounted fixed-axis solar PV array that will tie directly into the Pueblos’ electrical loads via a distribution line that will run with overhead and underground sections for approximately 2.5 miles. There will be electrical switchgear and transformers to allow the solar PV array to feed the Pueblos’ electrical loads and transfer any excess power to KCEC.

The Pueblo encompasses close to 17,800 acres of mostly forested land in a scenic mountain valley of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range in an isolated area between Santa Fe and Taos, in Taos County. The Pueblo has about 306 Tribal members with approximately 210 of them living in the Pueblo – the Tribe’s traditional homeland. The site for the Phase II solar system is on reservation land just south of the village of Vadito and it was originally an area where livestock was traded by the Tribe. The parcel of land is approximately a quarter mile north of State Highway 75, a little over a mile south of the Picuris Pueblo, and 1.5 miles to the west of the KCEC substation. 

The project was competitively selected under the Office of Indian Energy Fiscal Year 2017 funding opportunity announcement “Energy Infrastructure Deployment on Tribal Lands - 2018” (DE-FOA-0001847) and started in October 2018.

The project status reports provide more information.