Celebrating Tribal Communities leading the clean energy transition

Each November, Native American Heritage Month invites us to honor the traditions, languages, and stories of Native peoples—and recognize their long-standing leadership in community resilience and environmental stewardship. Throughout the month, Generation180 has highlighted clean-energy leadership at Tribal schools and community hubs across the country, beginning with the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project in New Mexico and clean-energy adoption across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This week, we turn to Minnesota’s White Earth Nation, where the Pine Point community is advancing one of the region’s most ambitious community-owned resilience projects. 

Pine Point Resilience Hub | White Earth Nation, MN

Against a backdrop of federal clean energy rollbacks, the White Earth Nation’s Pine Point community in Minnesota is a testament to resilience. Late this summer, construction began on the Pine Point Resilience Hub, a 500-kilowatt solar array paired with 2.76 megawatt-hours of battery storage that will power the Pine Point K-8 school and elderly gathering center. Expected to come online in early 2026, the hub will generate nearly 700,000 kilowatt-hours annually, helping meet the school’s energy needs while providing emergency backup power during outages and extreme weather.

The Resilience Hub 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 alright. Finally, they will not be the first to lose power and the last to get it back.

Gwe Gasco

Historically, Pine Point residents have faced among the highest combined energy and economic burdens in the United States—spending a greater share of their income on electricity than 97 percent of households nationwide. By owning the energy system outright, the community keeps revenue local and shields residents from the volatility of outside utilities. Instead of paying power companies, energy savings will circulate within the reservation—funding schools, jobs, and reinvestment in local infrastructure. At the same time, on-site solar generation and battery storage will ensure that critical facilities can stay powered during outages and extreme weather.

Gwe Gasco, Program Coordinator for 8th Fire Solar, explained in The Circle News, “The Resilience Hub 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 alright. Finally, they will not be the first to lose power and the last to get it back.”

It’s a feat years in the making—and one that faced numerous obstacles along the way.

In June 2024, the project was selected to receive $1.75 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Storage for Social Equity (ES4SE) Program, which helps underserved and frontline communities leverage energy storage to make electricity more affordable and reliable. In addition to funding from the Minnesota’s Solar for Schools program and private grants, developers 8th Fire Solar and 10Power were set to receive about $1.5 million in federal tax credit through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). 

But when federal grant programs were frozen in early 2025, the future of the project was thrown into question. With bridge loans already issued and crews hired, partners feared the loss of about $1.5 million in expected support from the Inflation Reduction Act tax credit. But after several tense months—and a great deal of persistence and optimism—the federal funding was ultimately secured and the project broke ground late this summer. What could have been a devastating setback instead became a testament to community resolve and developer commitment.

Sandra Kwak, founder and CEO of climate justice developer 10Power, reflected on the political turbulence that nearly derailed the project. Kwak told The Circle News, “The Pine Point project has faced many political and financial headwinds,” she said. “Although the initial project and funding originated with the Biden Administration’s Bipartisan Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), under Trump’s second term, many projects like this were being eliminated overnight. We persisted and the installation is thankfully underway.” 

In addition to supplying clean, reliable power, the hub includes an Ojibwe-language educational program and job fair, linking energy independence with cultural and economic renewal. Students will learn about solar power, battery storage, and energy resilience in Ojibwemowin, with a real-time monitoring platform that brings live microgrid data directly into the classroom. The goal is to connect modern energy technology with cultural identity, language revitalization, and hands-on STEM learning. Once completed, Pine Point will save significantly on utility bills while serving as a model for community-owned energy across northern Minnesota.

Curious to see how other Tribal schools and communities are leading the clean energy transition? Check out the first two stories in our Native American Heritage Month series—featuring the Zuni Youth Enrichment Project in New Mexico and clean-energy leadership across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—and stay tuned for our final post next week.