Pine Ridge solar nonprofit trains workers for high-paying jobs

PINE RIDGE, S.D. (South Dakota News Watch) - John Red Cloud wiped his hand across a large plastic panel held within a worn wooden frame that sits conspicuously just outside the door to the office of Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center, a solar education facility located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

For a moment on a sunny day in September, Red Cloud became a bit sentimental as he described the contraption and its unique place in the history of the nonprofit training center that prepares Native American adults for jobs in the sustainable energy workforce.

“This is where it all started, with just some tinkering by my father,” Red Cloud said. “This was the solar hot air furnace that kicked off my father’s vision.”

The somewhat makeshift yet inexpensive device contains a solar panel that generates hot air that is then circulated by a small fan. Red Cloud’s father, Henry Red Cloud, began to mass produce the furnaces in the early 2000s, ultimately bringing low-cost heat to about 1,200 homes on the reservation known for its frigid winters and high poverty rate.

After seeing the benefits of the furnace, and realizing the sustainable power of the sun, Henry Red Cloud launched Lakota Solar Enterprises, among the nation’s first Native-owned renewable energy companies.

When word of his energy prowess spread, and as other individuals and tribal nations sought to replicate his success, Henry Red Cloud would eventually develop the Red Cloud Renewable Energy Center that has since taught solar functioning and installation to more than 1,100 people, mostly young Native Americans seeking a path out of poverty and into prosperity.

“There’s a lot of doom and gloom on our reservation, but there’s a few pockets of hope that are happening,” said John Red Cloud, who serves as vice president of the training center that launched in the 2000s. “There’s a few good things that are coming out of here because of the people responding to the call, and I believe we are part of that new hope.”

In late September, Red Cloud Renewable was honored as the Power for All winner of the National Electrical Innovation Award presented during Climate Week NYC in New York City.

The award was given to recognize the organization’s “unique model that pairs vital technical workforce training for Native Americans with the immediate deployment of green energy technologies in underserved neighborhoods,” according to a news release.

To Red Cloud, the connection between his Indigenous beliefs and solar energy makes perfect sense and has created a symbiotic educational setting that seamlessly blends culture and education on 10 acres of wooded lands about 9 miles northwest of Pine Ridge.

“If you know about the Lakota people, we use the Sundance to worship the sun and everything it brings,” he told a News Watch reporter during a tour of the campus in September. “We’ve always known the life-giving power of the sun, and now we can utilize it with these solar panels and turn it into energy.”

Roughly 1,100 students — more than 95% of them Native Americans — have completed the programming at Red Cloud Renewable and about 80% of graduates are working in the solar industry, Red Cloud said.

The program consists of 60 hours of online training followed up by two weeks of hands-on, in-person training at the center near Pine Ridge. Some students live in on-campus dorms while at the center.

Students learn the basics of how solar energy is captured, stored and utilized, and then work with instructors on simulated rooftop solar systems and a model of an electrical metering system located on the campus. Upon successful completion of the program, graduates receive a certification that is recognized by the solar industry, Red Cloud said.

The demand for skilled workers in the sustainable energy fields continues to rise, with a recent study by employment firm lemon.io placing solar energy as the field most likely to expand in the coming years.

The firm ranked solar energy production tops, with 80% growth from 2022-24 and the expectation of adding 30,000 more jobs in the next decade at a media wage of $78,000 a year. Wind energy production was fourth in the ranking.

“That’s our whole goal, to get yourself out of unemployment and into a career,” he said.

South Dakota News Watch is an independent nonprofit. Read, subscribe for free and donate at sdnewswatch.org. Contact content director Bart Pfankuch: 605-937-9398/ bart.pfankuch@sdnewswatch.org.