Grand Canyon West, home of the Skywalk, gets solar power

The Hualapai Tribe and the U.S. Department of Energy will announce on Wednesday the completion of a major renewable energy project at the western edge of the Grand Canyon. The tribe will also celebrate its long-awaited water settlement.

Grand Canyon West, a tourism business owned and operated by the Hualapai Tribe, will throw the switch on a new $2.7 million solar-powered microgrid that will generate enough renewable energy to save the 2,300-member tribe about $11.5 million over the next 25 years.

The solar array and battery storage system will provide about 50% of the electricity for the operation, which includes the famous Grand Canyon Skywalk and an array of other attractions that bring in about 1 million visitors a year.

“We’re so proud as a tribe to be expanding our capabilities for our businesses, visitors and tribal members, while being good stewards of our land and natural environment," Hualapai Tribal Chairwoman Sherry Parker said.

Grand Canyon West sits on the west rim of the Grand Canyon, about 75 miles northeast of Kingman. The Hualapai Tribe has a 1 million-acre reservation spanning 108 miles along the Grand Canyon's south and western rims and overlooking the Colorado River. Since the tribe does not have a casino, it depends on tourism, arts and crafts, cattle ranching and government operations for employment and revenues.

Opening in 2007, Grand Canyon West features the skywalk, a traditional village, zipline, helicopter tours, pontoon boats, scenic viewpoints and cabins. The tribe's whitewater rafting trips also end at Grand Canyon West. The business employs about 750 people, making it one of the larger private employers in Mohave County.

The venue has relied on diesel generators to power its operations since it is not connected to the electric grid, but the generators are expensive to operate, require frequent maintenance and still break down. Diesel prices have risen sharply over the last few years, making them even pricier to operate.

Wahleah Johns, director of the DOE’s Office of Indian Energy, said even when the systems are working properly, the tribe pays about 36 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity, which is more than three times the average cost in Arizona.

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Tweedie Doe, project officer with the Office of Indian Energy, helped guide the tribe's project.

"I have a special interest in these unique projects," said Doe, a longtime energy project consultant. "We had a few challenges along the way."

Some of those challenges involved making the various systems "talk" to each other.

"All the technologies are well-developed," she said, "but making them work together was interesting."

In addition to supporting the development of an energy plan, Doe connected Hualapai energy officials with other tribes who had overcome similar issues and who shared their expertise in integrating systems in off-grid settings.

"We're also been talking about future opportunities," Doe said.

Parker said, "When we rely less on diesel generators and more on clean, renewable energy, we protect the gifts of nature God has given us.”

The project is part of a larger initiative by the Biden administration to deploy clean energy in Indian Country.

In May, the Department of Energy announced that the Navajo Nation and Hopi and San Carlos Apache tribes would receive more than $8.7 million in grants for an array of renewable energy projects.

The Navajo Nation will construct solar power systems to serve homes in communities on its lands in New Mexico. Hopi is building solar-powered microgrids for water infrastructure, and San Carlos will construct solar-power backups for hospital operations and staff housing near Peridot.

Johns, a member of the Navajo Nation, said the Office of Indian Energy has supported more than 210 tribal energy projects over the past 13 years. The agency has funded about $120 million to build out 46 megawatts of renewable electricity generation to nearly 9,000 buildings on tribal lands. Those include projects in Kayenta in the Navajo Nation, San Xavier District in the Tohono O'odham Nation and the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe in the Colorado River Valley.

Johns will be at the ribbon-cutting event, which will also celebrate the Hualapai Tribe's success in settling its water rights after a 20-plus-year effort. The Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2022 provides 4,000 acre-feet from the river and authorizes the construction of a pipeline and other infrastructure to deliver the water to Grand Canyon West. Water will also be delivered to homes.

Parker said the water settlement gives her citizens the right to obtain and use water from their ancestral river, the Colorado.

"This will make life easier for families on our reservation lands, be a tremendous boost to our economy and help us nurture and grow our enterprises and other businesses yet to even be imagined," she said.

“The term ‘life-changing’ is used a lot these days, but in the case of the Hualapai Settlement Act, it’s true."

Debra Krol reports on Indigenous communities at the confluence of climate, culture and commerce in Arizona and the Intermountain West. Reach Krol at [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter @debkrol.

Coverage of Indigenous issues at the intersection of climate, culture and commerce is supported by the Catena Foundation.

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