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I wonder if the tribes have enough autonomy to build transmission lines quickly. Just the Navajo Nation can build enough solar/wind and transmission lines withi
by thelastgallon 3y ago
I wonder if the tribes have enough autonomy to build transmission lines quickly. Just the Navajo Nation can build enough solar/wind and transmission lines within their reservation and probably connect to the grids in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. US is incredibly slow in building transmission lines, takes decades.
And, if they have enough autonomy to import Chinese panels (50% cheaper), a network of these nations can blanket the entire country with renewables.
- xeonmc 3y agoThis would greatly enhance the usefulness of tribal-electricity.
- foreverobama 3y ago[dead]
- EasyMark 3y agoI know it took my local utility about 5 years just to run about 30 miles of HV wire from me seeing "announcment of public commentary" -> studies -> "final notice of commentary on route" -> building starts. The building itself took about 6 months, as it ran along a road I travel a lot. That's a long time for 30 miles of HV towers.
- adrianN 3y agoOh, I thought you wanted to tell an anecdote about a fast project. Five years sound very quick to me.
- sergiomattei 3y agoFive years is light speed in terms of public works! I felt the same way.
- 10u152 3y agoA freeway bypass/overpass is being built on a road I travel a lot. Funding and consultation started in 2004. Expected completion date 2029. Quarter of a century to build 8km of road.
- bobthepanda 3y agoI'm ignorant of how this works, but aren't tribal nations exempt from at least state and local regs?
- deaddodo 3y agoSovereign (as not all are considered such) tribal lands are dictated solely by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (and Congress, obviously, as the institution granting that authority). In practice, unless something goes heavily against Federal interests (illicit drug production/trade, for instance), it is regulated by the nation ("tribe") alone.
- sterlind 3y agoso there are reservations that don't have tribal sovereignty? or did you mean off-rez holdings, or federally unrecognized tribes?
- deaddodo 3y agoThere are recognized tribes without recognized lands. There are federally unrecognized tribes. And there are properties of tribal institutions that do not fall on sovereign land. So the easiest answer is: "yes"/"all of the above"
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- njarboe 3y agoI would imagine that inside the land they control building lines could be quick but if they are exporting power (which I think is the main idea) they are not going to be able to have the autonomy to build the external lines they need.
- huytersd 3y agoI like the idea of native Americans being the solar barons.
- anonporridge 3y agoRelated. Even as energy production prices from solar trend towards zero, end user energy costs is still going to be lower bounded by transmission costs. California in particular is getting a nasty taste of this, with many customer's bill being mostly transmission costs. However, this is largely because they're paying for PG&E's lawsuit payouts and regulatory required upgrades. Energy can be free, but reliable and safe transmission will likely always be expensive.
- AYBABTME 3y agoThe crazy thing is that CA has ample solar power and the average house likely can be entirely offgrid with a large enough battery system.
- sciencesama 3y agoMay be start the manufacturing facility here and start panel manufacturing here itself !!
- nonethewiser 3y agoPanels are a commodity at this point. I hate to say it but mineral extraction, processing and panel manufacturing will be way more expensive than importing from China. Prerequisites for manufacturing panels here at an even remotely competitive price includes reducing labor costs and extracting/refining minerals at scale. I absolutely agree we should onshore solar production but simply onshoring manufacturing isnt the first step. Frankly im not even sure the labor cost is even solvable. Will probably always have to utilize low foreign wages
- bobthepanda 3y agomost of the onshoring is not dictated by cost but the realization that something that looks like COVID lockdowns of Chinese factories and ports makes just-in-time untenable. Most likely, you will see a lot of made in Mexico/Caribbean/Canada
- bboygravity 3y agoIs that really cheaper though taking into account that the cheap ones (and perhaps the expensive ones too) have a lifetime of about 50 years and cannot be recycled at all? That doesn't sound sustainable at all to me.
- justinwp 3y agoTransmission lines are already there because of the nearby decommissioned coal plant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Generating_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_Generating_Station