The Navajo Solar Light (NSL) Project

The Rotary eClub of the State of Jefferson https://stateofjeffersonrotary.org/ collaborated with the Durango Daybreak Rotary club https://www.durangodaybreakrotary.org/ to purchase and install solar light kits for families on the Navajo reservation in central Arizona. These families’ homes are located too far from the local power grid and still use kerosene lamps for lighting. Installing solar light kits enables children to study and parents to work and safely after sunset. This project has been ongoing since 2013.

The Navajo Nation is comprised of about 27,000 square miles of land in NE Arizona, Southern Utah, and NW New Mexico and is home to about 180,000 members of the Navajo Tribal Council. Approximately 16,000 people currently live “off the grid” with no access to electricity, sewer or water supplies. Electricity is intermittent via generators, potable water is trucked in from the Chapter House, and outhouses meet their sanitation needs. Since gasoline for their generators is frequently too expensive for these remote, mostly elderly tribal members, the illuminated portion of their day largely ends with the setting sun. A potential solution appeared in the form of a solar lighting kit that utilizes a roof-mounted solar array to provide charging power to three lithium-iodide battery packs that, in turn, provide power to an LED array. The kits include wiring systems that allow the three lights to be placed in areas designated by the clients, while a fourth line provides power for charging cell phones. Note that the tribal council, as an emergency system, provides cell phones and service, but maintaining cell phone charge has always been problematic. Individual Rotarians provide all the labor, transportation, and miscellaneous tools needed to complete these rooftop installations.

The NSL project is very closely coordinated with the Navajo leadership. They currently select the recipients of the arrays. Volunteers have a cultural experience as well as a work project, as Navajo elders share with us their history, language, customs, government, and dreams