By Dan Mayfield
Tribune Reporter
Albuquerque Tribune

Last year the U.S. Department of Energy put out a request for proposals for American Indian colleges to create a renewable-energy curriculum.

Only one school qualified: Albuquerque's Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute. In October the school received a $550,000 DOE grant to start the program to teach installation, maintenance and techniques of renewable energy installations.

The project, being installed by Sacred Power Corp. of Albuquerque, will incorporate a 1,200-watt photovoltaic array; a 40-foot, 1,500-watt wind turbine; and a wind tunnel to study wind power, says Dave Melton, president of Sacred Power.

"The purpose is to train our students to install and maintain renewable sources of energy," says Val Montoya, special projects manager at SIPI. "We feel very fortunate," she says.

The curriculum is broken into three parts: electronics, agriculture and environmental engineering. The school already has agricultural projects, such as a greenhouse and demonstration farm, and will use solar power for irrigation pumps, Montoya says.

Electronics students at the school will work with Sacred Power in the spring and fall to install the systems as part of a class.

The school also teaches civil planning and will introduce renewable energy planning in the courses.

Melton credits the contract to SIPI's good proposal and to Sandia National Laboratories.

"We always try to team with Sandia whenever possible," Melton says. "They have a mandate to work with the tribes, and we always like to work with them. They have the biggest and most advanced solar laboratory in the nation."