A Renewable Future for Nixon, Nevada

by Jessica Reeder and Marnee Benson

Construction Manager Richard Scott shows off aerial images of the solar arrays

Thursday, July 22, 2010– Community members in Nixon, Nevada, came together last Thursday with Black Rock Solar and NV Energy to celebrate the town’s new status as a solar-energy hotspot.

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Member Ralph Burns opened the ceremonies with a traditional Native American blessing, and several guest speakers including Tribal Council Chairman Mervin Wright, Museum Director Ben Aleck, and NV Energy Vice President Mary Simmons dedicated the arrays. The drum group Echo Sky performed for the gathered crowd who then enjoyed a BBQ dinner prepared by Black Rock Solar’s own Scott Stephenson.

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Member Ralph Burns

Over the past six months, Black Rock Solar has installed seven new solar arrays for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe at Nixon’s public facilities. Together with the first array installed in April of 2009 at the Tribal Health Clinic, the 1,932 panels produce 301.4 kilowatts of energy. Arrays have been constructed at the Tribal Health Clinic, Museum and Visitor’s Center, High School, Police Station, and Tribal Offices.

Chairman Mervin Wright

Echo Sky Drum Group

The arrays also mark a turning point: Nixon now has more solar panels per person than any other town or tribal community across the United States.

For the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, renewable energy represents exciting new possibilities. According to Tribal Chairman Mervin Wright, alternative energy has long been considered a desirable option. In fact, the tribe first looked at it in the 1990s, but cost was always a prohibitive factor.

Black Rock Solar and Burning Man Staff attended the celebration

When Black Rock Solar began building arrays in Gerlach and Wadsworth, Wright saw an opportunity. BRS was already working with NV Energy and, according to Chairman Wright, “could see the avenues that it would take to get a project started, because they’d done it before.” Soon, Black Rock Solar’s Tom Price came up with a proposal to change Nixon’s energy future.  At the outset, there were concerns within the community. However, as arrays began to be built and tribal members joined the work crew, the potential benefits of these projects became evident. “Maybe one day we’ll have our own solar company,” Wright said. “The magnitude of this has been astounding, to the point that we’re looking at how much more we can do.”

Tribal member watched the ceremonies

Wakan Waci “Konch” Blindman joined the BRS installation crew in April 2009, and now plans to work in the solar industry as a career. In his words, working on the BRS crew almost since its beginning has been “an interesting experience,” and one that he’s glad to have had. He also sees potential for a local solar company that would provide more job opportunities and “be able to power the reservation and maybe the surrounding communities as well.”

John Mosley, Environmental Director for the tribe, explained that the community hopes to increase its solar power production, while investigating geothermal resources and the potential for a geothermal plant on tribal land.

“It’ll create new jobs and generate electricity, which generates revenue,” Mosley explained. “It’s part of our economic development plan… On a reservation, one of the constraining factors is always employment, and income. To be able to develop that resource and generate funds that we can put back into the community to develop the economy, that’d be our major goal.”  The Tribal Council shares Mosley’s enthusiasm- when they heard the first proposal for these solar projects, Mosley says, “they couldn’t have voted any faster to approve them.”

Black Rock Solar

NV Energy had an education booth at the ceremony

NV Energy’s “Solar Generations” rebates alleviated part of the cost of the new arrays. Mary Simmons, Vice President of External Affairs for NV Energy, was on site during the dedication to support the project and share information about the future of energy. “Nevada is probably one of the top three states in the country for renewable energy, as far as state policy and practices that are already in place,” Simmons said. Nevada will get its power from at least 25% renewable sources by 2025. Solar energy will play a large part, as will geothermal. In fact, although geothermal resources take more time to develop, they may be the key to Nevada’s energy future.

Nathan Heller joins David Stachofsky of Save Mart and Tom Price of BRS -- Post-Burning Man 2009, Save Mart stores donated all the proceeds from the recycling they collected in support of the Nixon Projects.

Jason Geddes is Environmental Services Administrator for the City of Reno, and according to him, the potential for renewable energy production in Nevada is “Olympic.”  “With the amount of land that we have, the amount of sunshine and wind that we have, there’s no reason we should be importing energy,” said Geddes.

Not only that, but towns like Nixon will do well to produce their own power. Geddes sees “distributed generation”—every house in every town producing its own energy—as the best solution for the future.: “If we want to be independent Nevadans, we need to harness the sun and the wind to power our homes and our cars.”

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Museum Director Ben Aleck with Solar Arrowhead Photo

At Thursday’s event, Tom Price presented Director Ben Aleck and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Museum and Visitor’s Center with a framed aerial photograph of the arrowhead-shaped solar array that decorates the entrance to the unique building. “As far as I know,” Price said, “this is one of only three pieces of solar art in the country.”

Aerial shot of Nixon Museum's Solar Arrowhead by Black Rock Solar

The arrowhead array was designed by Konch Blindman and Matt Deluge, along with the rest of the BRS installation crew. Their work has helped Nixon move forward on its path to energy independence, inspiring Pyramid Lake residents and out-of-towners alike to think about renewable energy in a whole new way.