At the foot of the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains in Bishop, CA, sits the Bishop Paiute Tribe, the fifth largest California Tribe, with 2,000 members in one of the smallest land bases.
With limited land, renewable energy technology, energy sovereignty, and sustainability have been at the forefront of the Tribe's environmental development–and now, after over 200 single-family home solar installations, they are making history.
The Tribe became the first Tribal Nation to receive a solar installation incentive from the California Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program. In partnership with GRID Alternatives Inland Empire and their workforce trainees, a 49 kW system was installed at Coyote Mountain Apartments, an affordable housing and sober living facility. Clean energy technology will save Tribal residents of this 24-unit complex almost $500,000 on their energy bills over the system's lifetime".