Wind Turbines Power Remote Navajo Homesteads

Hybrid system for Navajos/Credit: L. Ahasteen

Some families on the Navajo Reservation are seeing things in a new light—a light powered by electricity from the wind. Larry Ahasteen, renewable energy specialist for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), and regional crews combine photovoltaic (PV) systems and small wind turbines to create hybrid systems that produce electricity for remote Navajo households.

“We use Mother Nature to generate power,” Ahasteen said. “We want to use both the wind and the sun. The sun doesn’t shine all the time.”

It’s estimated that 18,000 remote households on the Navajo Reservation do without electricity. The reservation spans 26,000 miles across three states, and the cost to extend the electrical grid averages about $27,000 per mile. Some families use diesel generators and kerosene lamps to supply limited power. Families who apply for electrical service at the NTUA district office may be eligible to lease PV panels if the household is located too far from transmission lines. The hybrid PV/wind systems installed by the NTUA crews now provide another power option for these off-the-grid families.

The NTUA crews first experimented with PV systems combined with an LP gas generator, but they soon learned that the LP gas generator had high maintenance costs.

“Our customers need reliable systems, and wind turbines are the answer,” Ahasteen said. “After consulting with wind and solar people, we developed a good hybrid system.”

NTUA's hybrid system consists of eight solar panels in an 880-watt array, a 400-watt Air-X turbine, and four 6-volt, 770-amp-hour batteries in series to create a 24-VDC configuration. The system is modular; if the NTUA crews have to remove a system, they can easily do so and move it to a new location.

According to Ahasteen, they installed the first wind turbine with guy wires. They later revised their design and mounted turbines on utility poles, which made the turbines more secure and more efficient.

“We installed 40 PV units with wind turbines, and we thought it worked so well that this year we‘re adding 63 more units,” he said. The hybrid systems are funded in part by federal grant money. In 2000, Sandia National Laboratories, the Navajo Nation, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which authorized collaboration and technology transfer to the Navajo Nation. Providing energy for Navajo families located off the grid became the focus of the MOU.

In 2001, President Bush signed the Navajo Nation Electrification Demonstration Project (NNEDP) into law. This law directed the Secretary of Energy to establish a 5-year program to assist members of the Navajo Nation to meet their electricity needs. In 2002, NTUA received a $2.8 million grant to implement the NNEDP. Within 5 months, NTUA crews had enabled 550 homes on the Navajo Nation to receive electricity for the first time.

In 2003, the Navajo Nation received a $2.3 million renewal grant ($1.15 million for electrical line extensions and $1.15 million for PV and wind systems). NTUA charges families $75 per month, which covers the maintenance cost of the units. No additional costs are incurred by the families; NTUA maintains the systems.

Wind resource maps produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory show that the Navajo Reservation has between a Class 2 to Class 4 resource, which may allow NTUA to install larger wind turbines. The NTUA crews are also installing two anemometers—one in Black Mesa, Arizona, and one in Gray Mountain—to measure their wind resource. They hope to obtain an additional two from Northern Arizona University (NAU) to install in the Gray Mountain area and in Chinle.

Ahasteen has been involved with renewable energy since the 1970s, when he installed PV systems for the Navajo Nation, but he views the hybrid systems as a beginning.

“We want to look at other renewables like biomass and fuel cell technologies to produce power. We have all of these big power plants on our reservation, and we benefit very little from them. Although it creates jobs and produces royalty, we still have to buy our electricity. These hybrid units are used on the reservation to produce energy for the people.

“I’m a very traditional Navajo,” he continued. “My philosophy is that we need to honor and respect the things we get. Activists say, ‘Let’s use wind and solar—it’s free.’ It’s not free. According to the Navajo philosophy, we have to honor and respect and give offerings so that these things will continue. Here at NTUA, we believe in the same principle.”

This article originally appeared in NAWIG News: The Quarterly Newsletter of the Native American Wind Interest Group, Spring 2004. Reprinted with permission from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.