Ramapoughs Go Green, Install Solar Panels, Wind Turbine

MAHWAH, NJ — A renewable energy system featuring solar panels and a wind turbine is being installed at the Split Rock Sweet Water Prayer Camp by a California-based company to provide power to security cameras and other needs.

BoxPower Inc. is providing the camp with a hybrid renewable solar and wind energy system, which features a wind turbine that was originally developed by Princeton University that is designed to be deployed in emergency situations.

The Ramapough Lunaape Nation founded the controversial camp site in October 2016 to show solidarity with their fellow Native Americans at the Standing Rock protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the mid-western United States and to protest the possible construction of the Pilgrim Pipeline, a 178-mile double-pipe system that would deliver crude oil from upstate New York through New Jersey to the Bayway Refinery in Linden. Gasoline and heating oil would be sent back up to New York.

The tribe erected teepees, pop-up tents and other structures on the 14-acre site.

Persistent tension between the camp's inhabitants and the town has drawn attention to activities there. The town claims structures on the camp were built without permission and violate local zoning ordinances. The parties have been to court a few times over the matter.

RELATED: Judge Sides With Ramapoughs, Lifts Restraining Order Regarding Teepees At Prayer Site

The camp is not connected to the power grid. Ramapough Lunaape Chief Dwaine Perry requested a mobile solar-power system be donated to the nation to meet the group's energy needs. The equipment will be used to power security cameras, a projector and a public address system, BoxPower said. The cameras are needed because there have been several incidents of vandalism at the camp, according to the company.

The equipment was originally developed as part of Princeton University’s Engineering Projects in Community Service program, which aimed to build rapidly deployable containerized renewable energy modules for disaster relief. BoxPower the commercial spin-off of the program. It seeks to implement innovative infrastructural solutions to off-grid and underserved markets worldwide.

Following the installation of the prototype, BoxPower might install a similar system on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and enter into an agreement with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority in New Mexico and Arizona.

According to BoxPower, 14 percent of indigenous people living on Native American reservations do not have electricity in their homes.

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