Bringing Solar Energy and Opportunities to Tribal Nations

Robert (Bob) Blake is a tribal citizen of the Red Lake Nation, which covers 1200 square miles in northwestern Minnesota. He's the founder, owner and CEO of a solar company called Solar Bear, which has a nonprofit associated with it called Native Sun Community Power Development. Solar Bear focuses on solar project development and installation for commercial real estate. Whereas Native Sun focuses on workforce development, K-12 education and exploring ways to build infrastructure beyond solar to improve energy reliability on tribal land. Robert believes that the true power of clean energy transition is to tackle multiple systemic issues at once: diminishing poverty and mass incarceration with employment opportunities, strengthening tribal and energy sovereignty by ending a reliance on fossil fuels, and of course, mitigating climate change. In this episode, we learn what has shaped Bob’s thinking and why he's so hopeful for the future.