Moapa Southern Paiute Solar, Phases 1 and 2 Project

Sukut provided grading and trenching services on the Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project located on roughly 2,000 acres on the Moapa River Indian Reservation in Clark County, Nevada.  This 250-megawatt solar plant houses photovoltaic thin-film solar modules and, once finished, it generates enough clean solar energy to serve the needs of about 100,000 homes per year for up to 25 years.  Sukut finished the project on time and on budget, and with combined efforts of other companies involved, this site became the first utility-scale solar plant on United States’ tribal lands. Project highlights included:

• Underground trenching and backfill of approximately 100,000 linear feet of AC/DC trenching, totaling 125 MW of power which is enough to power approximately 50,000 homes
• Challenges included trenching through a very hard caliche material utilizing Vermeer T955 trenchers
• Work was performed on the Moapa Paiute Indian Reservation; therefore, there was extensive coordination required to comply with the regulations involved with working on a sovereign nation.