Engineers at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories provide technical support. Each system serves a single home. One hundred systems have already been installed, and another 100 are to be delivered to the NTUA throughout the summer. Utility officials are identifying new households to receive units. Photovoltaics technology harvests energy from the sun and converts it into electricity.
Batteries store the electricity for future use in the home.
Jimmie Daniels , NTUA solar program manager, said the utility decided to offer this alternative power source to its customers because the cost of stringing wire over parts of the reservation's rural terrain is prohibitive. Between 10,000 and 30,000 Navajos are estimated to live without electricity throughout the reservation that covers parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. Earlier use of photovoltaics on the Navajo Nation sometimes failed because the recipients could not maintain the units. Under a new lease purchase agreement, NTUA will perform the maintenance needed to ensure that the systems remain in working condition. After 15 years, the ownership and maintenance of the systems will be turned over to the customers.