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The Intertubes lit up this morning with information a few community of progressive 115-kilowatt, fish-safe hydropower methods beneath development on irrigated farmland owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado. That’s simply the tip of the clear power iceberg for the sovereign nation, which can be laying plans for an enormous solar energy undertaking topping 900 megawatts.
Look Ma, No Fish: New Hydropower System Leverages Present Pipes
Earlier than we get to that new solar energy undertaking, let’s check out the brand new hydropower system. It might appear to be small potatoes, however the 115-kilowatt hydropower community is important as a result of it has the potential for replication at farms throughout the US which are struggling for aid from electrical energy prices and the impacts of local weather change.
The community as an entire is anticipated to yield a financial savings of about $42,000 on electrical energy prices annually in help of the 7,700-acre Ute Tribe Farm and Ranch Enterprise, which grows corn for the Tribe’s non-GMO Bow and Arrow model cornmeal, amongst different agricultural merchandise.
As soon as accomplished, the hydropower community will encompass 10 in-conduit hydroelectric generators and related tools engineered by the New York Metropolis agency Rentricity. The corporate makes a speciality of leveraging extra water stress in new or present pipelines to generate electrical energy, with out sacrificing stream.
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe undertaking launched in 2022 with funding from The Colorado Division of Agriculture and the Pure Assets Conservation Service of the US Division of Agriculture. 5 of the generators have been put in to this point. Along with zero-emission electrical energy, the undertaking contains water-conserving renovations to the present irrigation system.
Rentricity started life again in 2003 in New York College’s first ever cleantech incubator. It was prepared for business operation in 2012. The Colorado undertaking is important as a result of it marks the corporate’s first enterprise-wide deployment of its new Renewable Vitality AgriPower™ (REAP™) platform. With the seal of approval from state and federal funders, Rentricity anticipates catching the eye of different large-scale agricultural operations.
Large Photo voltaic Energy Undertaking Wins FONSI From BIA
The brand new hydropower system could have a major affect on the underside line sustainability of the Farm and Ranch Enterprise, and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is already taking an enormous leap up in scale with the proposed Solar Bear solar energy undertaking.
If accredited, the photo voltaic array will probably be situated on about 3,800-4,224 acres of the Tribe’s land, south of its headquarters in Towaoc, alongside US Hwy 160, beneath the wing of developer Canigou Group.
CleanTechnica’s Steve Hanley checked in on the photo voltaic undertaking in February, noting that it marks a step within the Tribe’s shift away from leasing its land for oil and fuel improvement.
In an replace on June 4, Canigou Group dropped phrase that the photo voltaic undertaking obtained its FONSI (Findings of No Important Influence) from the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs), with a Discover to Proceed anticipated shortly thereafter. If all goes in keeping with plan, development on the photo voltaic array will start later this 12 months.
Child Steps To Extra Photo voltaic Energy
The numbers on the official Solar Bear photo voltaic undertaking web site differ from some media studies, however they’re spectacular by any measure. With a capability topping 900 megawatts, the $1.5 billion array is anticipated to sprawl over hundreds of acres with 2.2 million photo voltaic panels.
Solar Bear isn’t the Tribe’s first flip across the solar energy block. Again in 2020, the US Division of Vitality recapped the Tribe’s earlier arduous pursuit of a modestly-scaled group solar energy undertaking weighing in at only one megawatt, to be situated close to the Ute Mountain On line casino. It was designed to account for greater than 1/4 of the Tribe’s electrical energy demand. As described on the on line casino’s web site, the photo voltaic array gives electrical energy for the on line casino, resort, the farm and ranching enterprise, and about 100 houses. A financial savings of $3.4 million is anticipated 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 Vitality Division’s Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory famous, in a 2020 recap of the Tribe’s solar energy journey.
The 2014 draft plan kicked off a years-long strategy of funding functions, Tribal Council approvals, interconnection negotiations, weather-related delays, and provide chain points culminating within the last commissioning of the undertaking on March 12, 2020 — simply in time for the Covid-19 lockdown to start.
Past Photo voltaic Tasks
Whereas that work was nonetheless beneath method, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe was already leveraging its expertise to have interaction in one other enterprise, a 144-kilowatt photo voltaic undertaking consisting of seven rooftop photo voltaic arrays on buildings situated in White Mesa, Utah. All collectively, the rooftop arrays are anticipated to avoid wasting greater than $800,000 over a 30-year lifespan whereas accounting for greater than 95% of the electrical energy demand in that a part of tribal lands.
The rooftop undertaking concerned a grant software to the Vitality Division, which introduced an award of $245,660 to match the Tribe’s contribution on Might 5, 2020.
All that is by means of saying that the Solar Bear undertaking didn’t pop up out of nowhere. The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has been assessing and taking part within the power transition for greater than 10 years, and they’re prepared for the subsequent step.
So is Canigou. The agency is already scouting the Solar Bear photo voltaic undertaking for large-scale inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing. Electrical energy from the photo voltaic array would run an electrolyzer system that jolts hydrogen from water. That’s a serious step up from the present hydrogen provide chain within the US, which relies upon virtually totally on extraction from pure fuel.
There being no such factor as a free lunch, Canigou may also should account for using water sources in electrolysis methods, so keep tuned for extra on that.
In the meantime, circling all the best way again round to that in-conduit hydropower undertaking, Rentricity can be prepared for scale-up. The corporate notes that its newly launched Renewable Vitality AgriPower system is designed “specifically for large farm enterprises utilizing gravity-fed center-pivot irrigation systems.”
Rentricity can be aiming to deploy its trademarked “Flow-to-Wire” generators at water methods, meals processors, and different water-centric operations together with knowledge middle cooling methods, so maintain on to your hat.
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Photograph: The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe is bringing a singular hydropower system and one of many nation’s largest photo voltaic tasks to Colorado as a part of their local weather motion plan (cropped, courtesy of Rentricity).
