 Red Lake kicked off a big solar energy project last Friday that's expected to bring a big boost to the reservations economy. Reporter Cheryl Moore has the details for this week's community spotlight. I'm glad these are these projects are coming to be a reality. It's a long time coming. Red Lake is going solar. The project kicked off with 250 solar panels being lifted to the roof of the government building the first step of phase one of the project. It's the smallest one to demonstrate what we can do and my my vision is that we can stimulate people in the community to invest in some of these systems as well. The solar project will bring dozens of jobs to the reservation. It's also cost effective. We're utilizing renewable tax credits. Utilizing depreciation cost you know depreciation tax credits and also a gift tax where we we get investors investing on each each individual building each individual facility. I believe they'll save about 1.6 million but they could be more in the school system will save money all these businesses we have will save money for this. These may look like just boxes right now but soon they're going to be solar panels. The first set are going to go right here on top of the government building then they're going to move to the schools the courts the casino and on top of the Boys and Girls Club building. Phase two is to develop a hundred forty to a hundred acre solar field where we generate 12 to 15 megawatts of power and sell that and then phase three of the Red Lake Nation solar plan which is to be self-sufficient to be able to provide electricity to renewable energy electricity to all our all tribal members within the boundaries. One thing that's important to the reservation is that the project is also in line with Red Lakes values. We want to go into the future of solar energy but also continue to live in harmony with Mother Nature so solar energy will take us to that place. This is part of our belief is to protect Mother Earth and so I believe that native people need to lead by example and by going with solar energy by going with renewable energy projects this is definitely the way that we can go ahead and lead the rest of the country this way. Reporting in Red Lake with this week's Community Spotlight, Shrall Moore, Lakeland News. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.