These days, any discussion of electricity inevitably turns to energy generated by the sun. In fact, according to a recent report by the Solar Energy Industries Association, nearly 60 percent of all new electric generation added in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2021 was solar — and forecasts are that the mainstreaming of solar energy will only accelerate.
The fact that the planet can increasingly depend on clean and emissions-free electricity from solar panels is thanks to people like Deb Tewa, this year’s winner of the Indigenous Excellence Award. Decades before solar energy became big business, Tewa was one of a handful of people actually installing panels and helping the niche industry prove its value.
For Tewa, that journey began in the early 1980s, when she started offering off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) systems that would deliver electricity for the first time to other members of her Hopi tribe. The fact that Tewa speaks some Hopi helped. “People trusted us and were embracing this transformative technology,” says Tewa, who worked with the Hopi Foundation to install solar. “People wanted lights and TVs and now cell phones and tablets and hot spots. But we started with humble beginnings.”
Tewa also started with humble beginnings. Originally from Hotevilla, Ariz., she is the first in her family to graduate from college — although she took a circuitous route to her BS in applied Indigenous studies at Northern Arizona University (NAU). After originally enrolling at NAU after high school, Tewa left after two years and moved back home. There she got a summer job working with the tribal government as a liaison with summer youth workers. One day a woman set up a table to recruit young people to attend Gila River Career Center, a trade school.
“I asked whether girls could apply, and she said yes,” recalls Tewa, who earned her electrical certification and graduated among the top 3 percent in her class. She then worked as an electrician in the Phoenix area, before being lured back home when Hopi tribe members were recruited to participate in a PV installation certificate program run by Solar Energy International in Carbondale, Colo.
Since then, Tewa has been a pioneer in what many see as an ongoing transition to climate-friendly sources of electricity. She’s been a hands-on installer, business owner, and instructor focused on delivering electricity to tribal communities. Tewa worked at Sandia National Laboratories as part of its Native American Renewable Energy Program and in the Arizona Department of Commerce Energy Office, where she educated tribes about renewable energy installation, financing, workforce development, and more.
Today, she is the president and owner of Tewa Energy Services and workforce and education manager for Native Renewables. In this role, Tewa is prepping a whole new generation to expand access to solar energy — over the past two and a half years, she has taught and trained nearly 20 Hopi and Navajo tribe members to be solar PV installers. As she surveys her long career in solar, Tewa doesn’t pat herself on the back. Instead, she thinks about the community members from the early 1980s who were willing to trust her that solar is worth what was then a much higher price tag. “I think about our early customers who trusted us when the technology was inefficient and the costs were high,” she says. “Thanks for investing in us.”
