Solomon B&B gets solar panels
Tribal members from the Native village of Solomon gathered to celebrate moving one step closer to being a “green” community on Saturday, July 31.
Several members of the community worked tirelessly for weeks to install brand-new solar panels and a generator at the village’s Bed and Breakfast, which were officially turned on over the weekend. The solar panels will allow the B&B to store energy and go off-grid, relying on clean and renewable energy in place of traditional fuel throughout parts of the year.
“We are somewhat of a pilot program here, but we can do it: we’re off grid!” said the village’s environmental coordinator Deilah Johnson. “There were a lot of challenges, and I wanted to give up a handful of times, but I can’t express enough just how much this was worth it. This is just the beginning.”
The goal, Johnson said, was to decrease the village’s greenhouse gas emissions. “Going green is the only path forward,” she explained.
The solar panel project has been in the works for years. The village’s 2016-2020 local economic development plan indicated the village’s interest in clean energy and their goal to move the B&B off diesel power. “Community members would like to see alternative energy supplement the Community Center/Bed & Breakfast diesel powered generators as well as provide power to the surrounding homes,” the plan says. “They are interested in studying alternative power to see which would be the most feasible for their area and situation.”
Solomon’s economic development plan includes the village’s top priorities for development, several of which are related to clean energy and environmental support.
The solar panel system comes to the village from Grid Alternatives, a California-based renewable energy company that supports solar energy across the world, including in tribal communities and several developing nations.
“We have to do everything we can to switch to renewables,” explained Grid Alternatives program manager Cora Saxton. “It’s really good for me to see the challenges that are right at [the village’s] front door with climate change and the different challenges that come with trying to execute a project of this size.”
Saxton acknowledged the challenges that come with living in small communities like Nome but hopes this project can serve as an example for other rural villages. “Pilot projects are always hard and take a long time and there are bumps in the road,” she said. “Hopefully the change isn’t just going to be the actual savings for [Solomon], but it can serve as an example to the greater community of what is possible out there.”
Solomon sits about 30 miles east of Nome and is only accessible via the road system in the summer months. The roads are not maintained year-round, so few reside in the village during the winter, when the only way in and out is via snowmachine, track vehicle or sleddog team. The village hasn’t been populated year-round in decades.
In 1956, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs school responsible for educating Solomon’s children closed down, many tribal members moved to Nome and other neighboring communities. Now, Solomon serves as a summer subsistence camp, where tribal members can go for gatherings, fishing, berry picking and camping.
Village leadership hopes to change that in an environmentally sustainable way.
“Members of the Village of Solomon are ready for their next move: going back home,” according to the Spring/Summer 2019 edition of the tribal membership newsletter. “For the Village of Solomon, going back home means creating a sustainable, renewable energy plan to fuel future community development and expansion.”
That same year, the village passed a resolution committing the community to the Paris Agreement, an in
ternational treaty on climate change exploring low-carbon and long-term greenhouse gas emission solutions. The United States committed to the agreement in 2015 under former president Barack Obama, but in 2017, former president Donald Trump announced the nation would withdraw from the agreement. President Joe Biden has since recommitted to the agreement.
The B&B’s solar panels are just the first step of the community’s transition to green energy, Johnson said. Next, she said, they hope to add existing structures and cabins in the area to their off-grid solar power system.
The village also hopes to explore wind-powered clean energy systems.
Johnson has been working for the village of Solomon since 2012 and assumed the role of environmental coordinator in 2014. Since then, she has been working to develop the village’s goal of environmental sustainability as part of their mission to return Solomon to a year-round village.