By Winona LaDuke
In mid-November, Federal representatives from Sandia Laboratory, solar developer l0Power, installer Ziegler Energy Solutions, and Minnesota-based panel manufacturer Heliene came to the village of Pine Point on the White Earth reservation. Their goal, discuss a “Pine Point Community Resilience Hub,” that will generate 809,068 kilowatt hours of energy per year in a village, which is well below the poverty level. They met at a community school which is l00% electric. The school’s current utility bills average $71,000 a year, paid to Itasca Mantrap Cooperative.
The back up batteries included in the project will also enable the village to continue to have power during grid outages – a first step to protect communities from blackouts during extreme weather events, which are increasing in frequency and severity.
The project is poised to launch. l0Power and community sponsor 8th Fire Solar have raised most of the money for the project. 8th Fire Solar was launched in 2017 in the village of Pine Point as a community development initiative aimed at restoring a regionally integrated Anishinaabe economy focused on food, energy and value-added production. A program of Akiing, 8th Fire Solar manufactures solar thermal collectors as part of a local workforce development program, providing training on manufacturing and installation, reducing energy bills and carbon emissions.
In June 2024, Minnesota U.S. Senator Tina Smith announced that the project received $1.75 million in Federal funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Storage for Social Equity program. That funding, along with almost $2 million from other grant sources, including the Minnesota Department of Commerce’s Solar for Schools program, Grid Alternatives Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund, the Verizon Climate Resilience Prize and Hammond Climate Solutions Foundation, and $1.4 million in tax credits, leaves just under $1 million to raise from other funders in order to replace the school’s currently leaking roof, before groundbreaking the spring of 2025.
Unique aspects of the project include the use of Minnesota made solar panels from Heliene, in the Iron Range, and a commitment to train tribal members for the installation and maintenance.
The White Earth Nation faces much higher residential energy and economic burdens than much of the rest of Minnesota – some of the worst in the country at the 97th percentile nationwide. White Earth tribal members face disconnections from local rural cooperatives at a high rate, and energy security is important to the community.
While the project is set to power the elementary school, it’s hoped that this will be expanded to a microgrid for the village itself. The community is considering a larger plan of energy resilience to tackle heat, backup power, and residential uses.
“Indigenous communities need to create energy security through owning their energy and the means of production,” said Sandra Kwak, founder and CEO of 10Power.
10Power is a mixed-race, woman-owned, certified ‘Best in the World’ B-Corp that was founded in 2015. It collaborates directly with underserved communities who lack equitable access to electricity to deploy renewable energy projects for climate justice. It focuses on local workforce development for a green economy with a gender empowerment lens. 10Power is supporting tribal communities to access Inflation Reduction Act capital.
Kwak said, “Besides providing greater energy security, this funding will also be used as an educational opportunity for students through curriculum integration. There will be a monitoring interface in the classroom, allowing students to see real-time data from the solar panels installed at the school and incorporate the Ojibwe language. Integrating the Ojibwe language into a renewable energy curriculum will hopefully inspire students to work in the renewable energy industry,”
Gwe Gasco, Program Coordinator for 8th Fire Solar attended this elementary school as a child, and today directs a small Indigenous workforce that manufactures, markets, and installs thermal solar panels – Made in Native America. “This project overall will give the White Earth community at Pine Point energy security so that residents can have peace of mind when the grid goes down; they will be all right, not the first to lose power and the last to get it back. With Pine Point School as a hub and an expansion of the already existing solar array with additional panels and a solar battery system to back it up, this timely project will ensure at least one day of comfort and security if the grid fails.”
Big questions are being asked by the community about location, and how the village itself may have more resilient power for the future. Some of the residents expressed concern about the location, which is still being determined, and others asked when the solar power would come to the low income residents of the housing project.
