Energize Wind River is working to bring solar energy to tribal members on the Wind River Reservation. After the project navigated a year of uncertainty around federal funding, a handful of solar systems are now up and running in the community, with more in the works at different points in the installation process.
The project is currently focusing on un-electrified homes, especially those with elders and kids. Folks who are interested fill out an application, and then the Energize Wind River crew comes to do an initial site assessment.
Halle Aragon heard about the program through her mom and decided to fill out one of those applications. Foreman Austin Hill swung by to check out her spot on a sunny Wednesday morning this summer.
“This is the one that’s applied to the solar here, this tiny house?” asked Hill, as he hopped out of a big white truck.
Aragon lives in a repurposed shed with her 4-year-old and her boyfriend, in the backyard of his family’s home in Fort Washakie.
Right now, their houses are connected by a thick power cord, running electricity from the main house to the tiny one.
But she’s excited about someday having her own electricity.
“Just being able to turn on a light and not have to worry about the power cords,” she said.
Aragon works at Eastern Shoshone Child Support down the road. She looked into getting connected to the electrical pole that powers the main house, but said just getting hooked up was going to cost $2,400.
“Then it would go off of the whole electricity for the whole house and I imagine the bill would be up there,” she said.
That’s what got her to apply to the Energize Wind River program. It installs solar panels, a battery, a small storage shed and a backup generator that makes sure there’s power in the case of an emergency or bad weather.
“We're just gonna take measurements and take pictures of your home and look in,” said Hill, describing the initial site visit process.
Because it gets electricity from that umbilical-cord connection to the main house, Aragon’s home is a good fit for the program. Hill peaks inside to see what the solar might be able to help power.
“A lot of the heat kind of rises in here, and so getting a fan in here would be perfect, to push that back down,” he said.
When it’s installed, the solar panel will go about a bus-length away from the tiny house. But exactly where the panel goes is flexible.
“I see your sweat house here,” he said to Aragon. “If that's in your way, let us know. We’d be able to scoot [the panel] over next to that vent.”
The Energize Wind River crew is mostly made up of folks from the reservation with an office in Fort Washakie, right next to the Hines General Store. The bulk of its funding comes from a grant from the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Tribal Electrification Program.
So far, they’ve installed four systems that are actively providing electricity to homes. Three of those are totally up and running, complete with the emergency back-up generator, and there’s more on the way.
At Aragon’s tiny house, the crew drew a line on the ground where the system’s wiring might go and made plans to call 811 to confirm there’s no other power lines lurking underground.
Then they’re off to another stop: the Headley house. The family lives off-grid with chickens, donkeys, dogs and a sassy potbelly-Juliana mix pig named Jack.
Their system is almost complete. All that’s left is a few final touches. Jesse Dorothy was hard at work in the Headley’s kitchen, tinkering with some electrical wires.
“I'm a master electrician, born and raised on the Wind River Indian Reservation,” he said. “I've been at it for over 50 years as an electrician.”
Dorothy is Northern Arapaho and has been working with some of the young guys on the Energize Wind River crew who are learning the tricks of the trade.
“ We're just going through and checking everything out and checking the light switches,” he said. “Everything's working really great.”
Dorothy said he hopes the solar program can keep expanding, even as a supplement to those who are on the electrical grid.
“If this gets going really great, I'd love to see them on the elders’ or the seniors’ homes to give them a reduced rate,” he said.
Because, as Dorothy explained, solar systems like this are only designed to handle so much use.
“Theoretically, you got 100 amps to play with, and a lot of places would consume more,” he said. “If they had an electric dryer, an electric stove, we couldn't do it. Electric heat, we can't handle it.”
But the Headleys already have a wood stove, their refrigerator is small, and they’re used to being intentional and sparing with their electricity use.
Reno Headley called the new system a “godsend” and said that it’s going to be nice to just flip a switch.
“There's light!” he said, turning on a switch in the kitchen.
Down the road and through a few turns is elder Tommy LeBeau’s place. His solar is fully set up and hooked into a new trailer that he’s renovating and moving into. His old trailer has a wood stove and a gas generator.
“I lived over 25 years without electricity, running water, sewers and stuff like that,” he said. “I lived the old way, living off the land, best I can in today's modern times.”
LeBeau is a big hunter and spends a lot of time in the Wind River Mountains. Decades ago, he got into a disagreement with a local power company after he was late paying a bill.
“I was gone for three months on the Sundance Highway, we call it the Powwow Highway,” he said. “They shut my electricity off for $11.”
That didn’t bode well for all the meat that was in LeBeau’s freezer.
“For $11, I'm like, ‘Wow, you guys, you spoiled all my food in my refrigerator and my freezer, all my wild game,’” he said.
So LeBeau was wary of utility companies for a long time. But Hill knew LeBeau and told him about what Energize Wind River was up to. And over time, LeBeau got more interested.
“The easiest thing about it was the application. Only had to sign my name,” he said. “I didn't have to give my Social Security number or my life history or how old I am.”
LeBeau said he’s glad to not be at the whims of a utility company and that the solar system has saved him around $1,000 in gas for his old generator over the last six months.
“It’s better, because I don't have to worry about running to town or to a gas station to get some gas for my generator, because I’ve got to charge my cell phone up because people forgot how to read smoke signals,” he said, laughing.
LeBeau’s big dream is to get the solar system plugged into a freezer so he can keep hunting and living off the land.
Energize Wind River’s goal is to have 10 fully operational systems set up in the community by the end of August.
