Solar Power Meets Hydropower On Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Ancestral Land

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The Intertubes lit up this morning with news about a network of innovative 115-kilowatt, fish-safe hydropower systems under construction on irrigated farmland owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado. That’s just the tip of the clean energy iceberg for the sovereign nation, which is also laying plans for a massive solar power project topping 900 megawatts.

Look Ma, No Fish: New Hydropower System Leverages Existing Pipes

Before we get to that new solar power project, let’s take a look at the new hydropower system. It may seem like small potatoes, but the 115-kilowatt hydropower network is significant because it has the potential for replication at farms across the US that are struggling for relief from electricity costs and the impacts of climate change.

The network as a whole is expected to yield a savings of about $42,000 on electricity costs each year in support of the 7,700-acre Ute Tribe Farm and Ranch Enterprise, which grows corn for the Tribe’s non-GMO Bow and Arrow brand cornmeal, among other agricultural products.

Once completed, the hydropower network will consist of 10 in-conduit hydroelectric turbines and associated equipment engineered by the New York City firm Rentricity. The company specializes in leveraging excess water pressure in new or existing pipelines to generate electricity, without sacrificing flow.

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe project launched in 2022 with funding from The Colorado Department of Agriculture and the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the US Department of Agriculture. Five of the turbines have been installed so far. In addition to zero-emission electricity, the project includes water-conserving renovations to the existing irrigation system.

Rentricity began life back in 2003 in New York University’s first ever cleantech incubator. It was ready for commercial operation in 2012. The Colorado project is significant because it marks the company’s first enterprise-wide deployment of its new Renewable Energy AgriPower™ (REAP™) platform. With the seal of approval from state and federal funders, Rentricity anticipates catching the attention of other large-scale agricultural operations.

Massive Solar Power Project Wins FONSI From BIA

The new hydropower system will have a significant impact on the bottom line sustainability of the Farm and Ranch Enterprise, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is already taking a huge leap up in scale with the proposed Sun Bear solar power project.

If approved, the solar array will be located on about 3,800-4,224 acres of the Tribe’s land, south of its headquarters in Towaoc, along US Hwy 160, under the wing of developer Canigou Group.

CleanTechnica’s Steve Hanley checked in on the solar project in February, noting that it marks a step in the Tribe’s shift away from leasing its land for oil and gas development.

In an update on June 4, Canigou Group dropped word that the solar project received its FONSI (Findings of No Significant Impact) from the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), with a Notice to Proceed expected shortly thereafter. If all goes according to plan, construction on the solar array will begin later this year.

Baby Steps To More Solar Power

The numbers on the official Sun Bear solar project website differ from some media reports, but they are impressive by any measure. With a capacity topping 900 megawatts, the $1.5 billion array is expected to sprawl over thousands of acres with 2.2 million solar panels.

Sun Bear is not the Tribe’s first turn around the solar power block. Back in 2020, the US Department of Energy recapped the Tribe’s earlier arduous pursuit of a modestly-scaled community solar power project weighing in at just one megawatt, to be located near the Ute Mountain Casino. It was designed to account for more than 1/4 of the Tribe’s electricity demand. As described on the casino’s website,  the solar array provides electricity for the casino, hotel, the farm and ranching enterprise, and about 100 homes. A savings of $3.4 million is expected over its lifespan.

“The UMUT first set its sights on solar 7 years ago when it drafted a strategic energy plan with technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Indian Energy,” the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory noted, in a 2020 recap of the Tribe’s solar power journey.

The 2014 draft plan kicked off a years-long process of funding applications, Tribal Council approvals, interconnection negotiations, weather-related delays, and supply chain issues culminating in the final commissioning of the project on March 12, 2020 — just in time for the Covid-19 lockdown to begin.

Beyond Solar Projects

While that work was still under way, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe was already leveraging its experience to engage in another venture, a 144-kilowatt solar project consisting of seven rooftop solar arrays on buildings located in White Mesa, Utah. All together, the rooftop arrays are expected to save more than $800,000 over a 30-year lifespan while accounting for more than 95% of the electricity demand in that part of tribal lands.

The rooftop project involved a grant application to the Energy Department, which announced an award of $245,660 to match the Tribe’s contribution on May 5, 2020.

All this is by way of saying that the Sun Bear project did not pop up out of nowhere. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has been assessing and participating in the energy transition for more than 10 years, and they are ready for the next step.

So is Canigou. The firm is already scouting the Sun Bear solar project for large-scale green hydrogen production. Electricity from the solar array would run an electrolyzer system that jolts hydrogen from water. That’s a major step up from the current hydrogen supply chain in the US, which depends almost entirely on extraction from natural gas.

There being no such thing as a free lunch, Canigou will also have to account for the use of water resources in electrolysis systems, so stay tuned for more on that.

Meanwhile, circling all the way back around to that in-conduit hydropower project, Rentricity is also ready for scale-up. The company notes that its newly introduced Renewable Energy AgriPower system is designed “specifically for large farm enterprises utilizing gravity-fed center-pivot irrigation systems.”

Rentricity is also aiming to deploy its trademarked “Flow-to-Wire” turbines at water systems, food processors, and other water-centric operations including data center cooling systems, so hold on to your hat.

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Photo: The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is bringing a unique hydropower system and one of the nation’s largest solar projects to Colorado as part of their climate action plan (cropped, courtesy of Rentricity).