Off the grid: Alumna helps tribes bring electricity to rural homes
In a country where almost everyone has electric power, or at least access to it, it is easy to forget that nearly 20,000 households don't. Sandra Begay-Campbell is tackling the problem every day in her job. Begay-Campbell (MS 1991 CE) is a principal member of the technical staff at Sandia National Lab where she works in the Tribal Energy Program. Begay-Campbell, a Navajo, grew up in Gallup, New Mexico and attended the University of New Mexico as an undergrad, studying Civil Engineering. She then came to Stanford to study structural engineering. She is proud to be Stanford alumna and found many challenges in obtaining a Stanford education (including surviving the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake). Yet just nine years following her graduation, Stanford honored her by inducting her into the Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame. She recently spoke with us about her current work and her time at Stanford.
There are about 19,000 U.S. households, particularly on tribal reservations, that are still without power. Why is that?
When the U.S. was settled, there was a lot of development that went from the East coast to the West coast, but the majority of that development and infrastructure building skipped over the tribal reservations. That's part of it. In addition, about 50-60 years ago when there was a lot of activity in rural development including rural electrification, the reservations were again skipped over. The Navajo Nation takes up most of that total number of homes without electricity. My tribal reservation covers four states: Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. It is 25,000 square miles and about 250,000 Navajos still reside there. In order for a home today to have electricity, the price is $32,000 per mile for an electrical line to be extended from the grid. There's quite a bit of cost that rural and impoverished people can't afford. There are new kinds of technology, such as solar energy or wind, that are independent of the grid and wireless communication like cell phones and WiMAX that can help provide a much better way of living.
What do you do at Sandia, and how are you helping address this issue?
My job is based on providing technical assistance to tribes. Since I provide work for the Department of Energy (Sandia Labs is a contractor to DOE), it's a government-to-government relationship and I work directly with the government of the Navajo Nation. I can't necessarily help individuals with their technical problems, but I try to work with the government agencies, such as a tribal utility that manages the distribution of power for the tribal nation. Through the Department of Energy, we have federal grants which are awarded every year to different tribal governments for rural energy development projects that will increase the proportion of households with power or sell the electricity for economic development. Since 2002 I have been able to administer the DOE's Tribal Energy Internship Program. Every summer I have a cadre of students that work directly for me, and I like to say, I put them in real world projects, in real-time. They are helping me with technical assistance, but they are learning directly from the tribal leaders. I take them out to the tribal lands and they see renewable energy projects at various stages. The Navajo Nation is the largest tribe in the country, and they have the oldest tribal utility, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority, which is about 50 years old. Part of their business has been installing solar panels on individuals' homes for about eight to ten years. I am really proud that one of my former students now runs that program for the utility.
Has there been much of a dent in the roughly 19,000 homes without power?
No. We're just eating away at it. The cost of solar right now is still prohibitive. But, from the technical standpoint, the technology has evolved from a very small solar panel with a set of batteries, to an array of photovoltaic panels that generate more electricity. The Navajo Tribal Utility has added a wind turbine to the power system, to increase the amount of electricity generated. There are some really nice models now. The Navajo Tribal Housing Authority and the tribal utility pulled together a good prototype where a renewable energy system is installed in a brand new off-grid home. About two years ago, I provided some initial assistance to the Laguna Pueblo, which is about 30 minutes away from Albuquerque. The tribe is trying to establish a solar program within their utility. It's just the beginning stages. They've completed their energy planning that was funded through the Department of Energy, and they want to get to the next stage of installing some hardware at different Pueblo villages.
What inspires you most about your work?
I am very passionate about my work and I also enjoy helping my fellow engineers understand how they can support requests. I think there's a lot more diplomacy involved than there is engineering. I think part of my background and personality helps quite a bit. I interpret between technical terms and easy to understand language especially explaining to a tribal leader or decision maker. That's a bridge we have to provide: giving enough detail that's understandable for the leader to make a decision and knowing when to back off. We can't do a technology push if it's not a good match, or it's not the right time, or there's not enough support within the tribe to do that kind of project. We try to be what we call ìthird-party neutral.î On behalf of the tribe we're trying to help them with answers to their questions without trying to convince them one way or the other. We try to stay as neutral as possible. At Sandia we have a solar group, wind group, geothermal, and an electrical grid study group. My job is to not stay too focused in the solar realm, although I am in the solar department, but try to service requests based in other technologies.. I try to get support from other staff members or engineers in different areas of technology.
How did your time at Stanford lead to this and what influence has Stanford had on your career?
It's good to have the credential in order for people to hear through all the noise. There are many people trying to promote what they are working on, but a Stanford master's degree gets their attention. Stanford was one of the more difficult times in my life. At that time, I was very quiet and very introverted, so I didn't have a great experience in some of the group assignments. But the experience helped enforce that group dynamics are so important whether it's a project and you're working on a team, or whether it's working in the community. It's important to make sure that everybody's voice is heard and that diversity is recognized. I was very different from my counterparts. And that's all right because ultimately it helped, make me assertive. It gave me a lot more independence. It helped me really think beyond what the boundaries may be, and to not be bound by people's expectations. It had always been a dream of mine to go to Stanford. I tell young people ìkeep your dreams alive.î It may not happen overnight, or along the path that you think, but you can make it happen. I was bound and determined to get through Stanford. I had a full fellowship which paid all expenses and I completed a master's degree. I am proud to be a graduate of the 100th class of Stanford University. A Navajo woman making it through Stanford is pretty rare, so I hope this accomplishment helps people understand that an atypical student can come from anywhere. I know of a few more Navajo students that have completed with their master's or PhDs. It's a very unique position to be in. I'm very proud of that of the accomplishment and I appreciate the support I received to get through the university.
