Celebrating Top Solar Nonprofits: Tribal Energy Alternatives

This summer, a crew from Tribal Energy Alternatives (TEA) spent a month in Browning, Montana, about 25 minutes from Glacier National Park and 40 minutes from the Canadian border. They were there to build solar for Blackfeet Community College (BFCC), and they left behind a system that powers a traditional food garden, pumps water for a new buffalo herd, and gives students a working site to learn from.

We sat down with Jan Scott, Construction Manager at TEA, to talk about the build and why this kind of work matters so much for Native communities.

About TEA

TEA empowers Tribal-led solutions in the clean energy transition. By combining deep cultural competency with technical expertise, TEA provides accessible funding, training, project development, and policy advocacy to support tribal energy sovereignty and build community power across Indian Country. TEA’s mission is to support Tribal Nations build community- powered solutions to advance economic and environmental justice through sustainable energy. TEA’s vision is a balanced transition to energy sovereignty for Tribal Nations grounded in Traditional values for future generations.

Workforce is central to how TEA operates. Wherever possible, the team hires and trains members of the tribe they’re working with. Jan explained that training a tribe’s own people is what builds real energy sovereignty, because the knowledge to install, maintain, and expand these systems stays in the community.

TEA has worked with more than 75 tribes so far, and the work is moving east. The team recently completed its second project of the year with the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma and is heading to Nebraska next month to work with the Winnebago Tribe.

Jan’s own path into this role came full circle. She started as a solar installation intern at GRID Colorado, went on to Independent Power, and is now in her ninth year in solar. At Independent Power she worked on complex, high-end installations for discerning clients. She brings that same standard with her to her new role. In her words, the system her crew installs could be on someone’s grandmother’s home, 30 miles from the nearest town, and every single project should be built with the same level of quality and craftsmanship.

The Blackfeet Community College Build

The project was funded through the Tribal Solar Accelerator Fund (TSAF) and includes a 20.54 kW agrivoltaic system and a 2.37 kW water pumping station. The main array is made up of 36 Hyundai 595W bifacial modules, split evenly between a northern and southern array in the college’s Demonstration Garden. The smaller pump array sits about a quarter mile east, near a creek that runs behind the garden.

Jan spent about a month onsite. The first week was dedicated to training, including CPR and first aid certifications. Construction started the following week and ran for about three weeks.

The site called for a specialized PV mounting structure. Browning sees very high winds, so the team used ground mount structures from Montana Solar with Tamarack racking. The crew assembled everything at working height, mounted the modules, and then used chain hoists to lift the full array roughly 10 feet into the air before securing it to the poles. Travis Jordan, owner of Montana Solar, came out to show the crew the process, and together they had the pump array built in about two hours.

The rest was up to TEA’s crew. They installed a SolarEdge inverter with optimizers, trenched conduit, and pulled wire over a 300-foot run.

The build had its share of challenges. The garden sits near protected wetlands, and environmental approval for trenching came through the morning of pile driving. Wildfire smoke pushed air quality to 182 one day, which shut down work entirely. Jan was clear that it wasn’t all smooth sailing, but anyone who works in construction knows that’s the reality of this type of work. Regularly solving problems is part of what trainees need to see and learn.

Food, Water, and Traditional Teachings

The Demonstration Garden focuses on traditional plants that grow well in the region. The garden includes several berry varieties, including service berries, choke cherries, thimble berries, Oregon grapes, and raspberries. Once the bushes mature, the college plans to send the harvest to the local food pantry.

The bifacial modules overhead soften the direct sun on the plants below, and students can adjust the array’s tilt to study how it affects both plant growth and solar production. That gives the site a role in environmental studies and horticulture courses, alongside solar training.

The pump array came about when TEA learned the college was getting a small herd of buffalo and needed a way to move water from the creek to a pond. The team offered to supply the power and worked it into the contract. Down the line, the college hopes to offer a course where students learn to harvest the buffalo, with that food also going to the community.

Training the Next Crew

TEA hired trainees from the college’s Industry Trades Certificate program, recent graduates who had an interest in the trades. Most were 19 or 20 years old, just out of their first year of college.

Jan walked them through the fundamentals and she said they soaked up everything. Explaining the “why” matters to her. Early in her career, she often had to piece together the reasoning behind what she was doing on the job. Now she makes a point of explaining both why and how, and she wants trainees to know that setbacks on a job site are normal.

Working in Relationship

As a Native woman working on another tribe’s land, Jan describes herself as a visiting relative. During the project she met the tribal council president, the college president, and the director of housing, many of them at powwow. She attended the Heart Butte Powwow and was invited to community feeds as a guest. Before groundbreaking on the solar project, the community offered a prayer and a song in the Blackfeet language.

Jan said the Blackfeet community is actively working to reclaim traditions taken from them during the boarding school era, and seeing traditional teachings and renewable energy come together on this project was a core part of what TEA stands for. Reflecting on the month, she said the community gave her more than she gave them.

What Comes Next

This build is one phase of a longer relationship. The partnership between BFCC and TEA began with a Department of Energy-funded project in 2020, with 53.2 kW of rooftop solar installed across four campus facilities in 2021. TEA expects to return to install solar on another campus lodge in 2027 or 2028.

The relationships built during this project are opening doors beyond the college. TEA is now in conversation with the Blackfeet environmental office about projects in St. Mary, near Glacier, and with the housing department about new neighborhoods in surrounding communities.

TEA’s work shows what it looks like when solar projects are built around a community’s own goals, whether that’s net zero, food access, or training the next generation of installers from within.

Learn more about TEA and their work!