The Energy Information Administration estimates that 14 percent of households on Native American reservations have no access to electricity, 10 times higher than the national average. Many reservations have homes scattered over large areas, far from a utility grid. With the cost of extending utility distribution lines to remote locations as much as $60,000 a mile, it is often cheaper to power the remote homes with solar energy and battery storage.

That is exactly what’s been happening on the Hopi and Navajo reservations for years. The Hopi Nation in Arizona formed the Hopi Solar Electric Enterprise in 1987, which sold and installed small-scale solar systems to Native Americans. Debby Tewa, a licensed electrician, worked with the Hopi Solar Electric Enterprise, now called NativeSUN, for 11 years as both electrician and project manager. Tewa, who spent the first ten years of her life in a home without electricity or running water in a remote area of the Hopi reservation, helped install 300 residential solar PV systems on homes throughout the reservation through a revolving loan program. The loan required a down payment and subsequent monthly payments until the loan was paid off.

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) has offered solar PV systems to its customers who don’t have access to the grid since 1999 through an affordable rental program. NTAU is currently renting 263 systems, a small percentage of the number necessary for the estimated 18,000 homes on the reservation not connected to the grid. In this case people don’t own the PV system, but pay for the electricity provided, similar to the SolarCity model. More recently NTUA started offering solar-wind hybrid systems. An 800-watt PV array along with a 400-watt wind turbine costs the homeowner $75 per month which goes towards the purchase of the system, and is enough to power lights, TV, appliances, and an energy-efficient refrigerator. NTUA finances the systems, which is much cheaper for them than to extend their utility lines to the homes.