Wind push at Big Bo: NTUA seeks approval for 250-megawatt energy project

By Karen Francis
Special to the Times

WINDOW ROCK

Whether or not the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority has the go-ahead to test the feasibility of a proposed wind project was the question at the Resources and Development Committee meeting Monday.

Arash Moalemi, a consultant, delivered a report on behalf of NTUA about the project proposed at the Big Boquillas Ranch, also known as the “Diamond-A,” which covers more than half of Arizona Game Management Unit 10. Moalemi said NTUA has been waiting about six months for a response from the Navajo Nation’s General Land Development Department regarding a permit to install five meteorological towers at Big Bo.

The towers would collect data to determine whether a wind farm is feasible at the site, which is located on tribal fee land near Seligman, Arizona.

Lease history and jurisdiction concerns

NTUA first secured a lease in 2010 when it initially considered the Big Boquillas wind project. Byron Bitsoie, the delegated department manager III at GLDD, said that lease would have expired in five years. But Division of Natural Resources Director Mike Halona explained that the lease was approved before land withdrawal regulations were put in place in 2015, which limit such terms to five years. The original resolution approving NTUA’s lease and financing agreement was for 30 years, said Halona.

“The OK is really there,” he told committee members.

Halona also said he could obtain a letter from the Department of Agriculture outlining the specific areas NTUA would work in. Still, Chinle Delegate Shawna Ann Claw raised concerns.

“If there was no movement on this lease, I think to me, it can be legally challenged, this resolution, because there’s been no movement,” Claw said. “What I don’t want to start happening is that we are creating precedence for energy projects to occur on fee lands that the Navajo Nation owns.”

Halona noted that since the project is located on private land owned by the Nation and not on trust land, certain clearances do not apply.

To read the full article, please see the Aug. 7, 2025, edition of the Navajo Times.

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