Sandia engineers provide expertise to ensure the units are properly installed and working as intended. 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, says 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. The current program follows up a solar electric home experiment conducted by Sandia and the NTUA in the early 1990s. Based on results of that effort, the new systems are somewhat bigger with about 600 watts of photovoltaic collectors. Operating under a lease purchase agreement, NTUA performs the maintenance needed to ensure that the systems remain in working condition.