Fort Mojave Tribe
Population: 1,004
Size: 37 sq. mi.
Median Household Income: $33,424
The Fort Mojave Indian Reservation is located along the Colorado River in the vicinity of Needles, California. The Reservation covers nearly 42,000 acres in the tri-state area of Arizona, California, and Nevada. The land is divided into three major segments: 23,669 acres in Mojave County Arizona; 12,633 acres adjacent to Needles, California; and 5,582 acres in Clark County, Nevada. Tribal headquarters are located in Needles, California.
The Fort Mojave tribe is in the process of developing a 310 MW solar PV project on tribal reservation land in Arizona and California. A proposal for a transmission line to connect the project to the Mojave Generating Station substation was submitted to the Public Utility Commission of Nevada in March 2013. The project does not currently have a PPA for selling the electricity.
The status of the project is not certain, and further information about the project is not public, according to tribal representatives.
The Aha Macav tribal power utility has a 28 kW PV system on its main office building, which meets the building’s needs, and has a smaller (3-4 kW) system on the operations center. The tribe is pursuing utility-scale development for sale to external partners, and is examining a large 1-2 MW size PV system to meet the utility/tribe’s internal load. The utility’s primary source of electricity for meeting consumer load currently is power contracts and market purchases.
This information was gathered using web searches and from conversations with tribal representatives. The census data was found online and represents 2010 figures.
Sources:
- U.S. Department of Energy Tribal Energy Program website:
- Laughlin Times article
- Demographic Analysis for Fort Mojave Tribe
- Lisa Wayne, Tribal Representative
- Bill Cyr, Aha Macav Tribal Power Service