MITCHELL, S.D. (South Dakota News Watch) – Matthew Pearson found a successful career in the wind energy industry purely by chance.

After graduating from high school in Vermillion, Pearson knew he didn’t want to pursue a four-year degree and instead scrolled through the list of majors offered at Mitchell Tech, one of the state’s four technical colleges.

“When I came to the wind energy program, I thought, ‘Well, that sounds kind of cool,” Pearson, 28, recalled during a recent interview at Mitchell Tech, the only South Dakota college with a designated wind energy major.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Pearson had stumbled into one of the fastest-growing, highest-paying trade fields in the state and nation.

While workforce shortages plague many industries and employers in the Rushmore State, great opportunities abound for skilled workers to build, operate and maintain renewable energy facilities, including at wind farms. Meanwhile, strong partnerships between technical colleges, employers and the Build Dakota Scholarship program have forged a ready pathway to quickly and effectively fill the need for energy workers.

Pearson obtained a Build Dakota Scholarship that paid all tuition for a two-year wind technology degree, then spent about $15,000 to complete another two-year major in electrical construction.

After graduation, he quickly landed a job wiring wind towers at locations around the country. He was initially paid about $80,000 a year, and after six years was making $127,000 plus a daily living fee of $140.

But now, with a fiancee and two children, Pearson is completing a circle by leaving field work and returning to Mitchell Tech to become its only wind energy program instructor.

Pearson said that in addition to teaching the skills needed to thrive in the renewable energy field, he’ll also share the good news about their job prospects.

“There’s been a steady uptick in the need for workforce,” he said. “When I would get to a jobsite, there would be three or four companies there, and they’d always come over and ask, ‘Hey, you want to come work for us instead?’”

77% of power from renewable energy

South Dakota is among the top three states nationally in percentage of energy generated from renewable sources, leaving it well positioned to provide both jobs in the field and trainers like Pearson who will help meet demand for workers.

About 77% of the power used in the state comes from non-fossil fuel sources, largely from water and wind, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The state has three solar farms but no plans filed for more.

Since the mid-1950s, South Dakota has generated significant energy from its four hydroelectric power plants on the Missouri River.

And over roughly the past 15 years, the state has seen a tenfold increase in wind energy production, according to the state Public Utilities Commission. That growth has created a healthy number of construction and maintenance jobs.

In 2009, the state had 190 turbines capable of producing about 350 megawatts (MW) of electricity. At the end of 2024, South Dakota was home to 1,417 turbines able to generate about 3,600 MW of energy. The PUC also approved a 68-turbine project with a capacity of 260 MW and a $621 million price tag near Clear Lake in March.

“We’ve had just a tremendous expansion of wind energy in South Dakota,” said Chris Nelson, a PUC commissioner. “Today, though, we’re in a little bit of a lull.”

The expected slowdown is due to a lack of transmission lines capable of carrying more power, most of which heads east out of the state, Nelson said.

Despite the infrastructure challenges, renewable energy still has a bright future, he said. Two nonprofit energy consortiums that manage the power grid in the upper Midwest plan to spend a combined $37 billion to expand transmission capacity, including in South Dakota, over roughly the next decade.

Two majors, 100% job placement

At Lake Area Technical College in Watertown, students are offered two energy-related degree tracks, said president Tiffany Sanderson.

The energy technology major provides training in development and maintenance of energy systems, and the energy operations degree is aimed at managing an energy facility.

“In our energy programs, those are students interested in working with their hands and solving engineering or process-oriented problems,” she said. “They’re very mechanically minded and can figure out how to make sure power is produced reliably so people don’t have delays in service.”

During a recent tour of the technology labs, students used 3D printers, developed and analyzed system efficiency, and worked on unique projects like a solar-powered ice fishing shanty.

The two programs have about two dozen students combined, Sanderson said. In the 2023 graduating class, 100% of all graduates were employed within six months, with average salaries of $65,000 a year in the technology major and $69,000 a year in operations.

“That is for their first jobs in the industry, so those are tremendous opportunities for a brand new graduate with two years of college education,” she said.

‘Crazy’ number of jobs available

In May, Nathaniel Bekaert will become one of those new graduates from Lake Area tech.

Bekaert, 28, grew up on a farm and came to the college after six years in the U.S. Army, which paid for almost all of his tuition, fees and equipment costs.

After touring the Gavins Point Dam hydroelectric plant in Yankton on the Nebraska border and interning at the Big Stone Power Plant near the Minnesota border, Bekaert was sold on the idea of working as a mechanic in the energy field.

“The more you learn, the more you want to dive into it,” he said.

With his anticipated degree and work experience, Bekaert said he was recruited extensively by energy companies.

“The amount of energy companies coming in looking for workers is crazy, and you can’t really grasp how many companies are looking for energy students,” he said. “There are a dozen or more companies within 45 minutes from here that are actively looking for technicians and operators or people with some type of energy degree.”

As a native of the Watertown area, Bekaert has accepted a job close to home as a wind technician at the Crowned Ridge wind farm northeast of the city, where he will make $29 an hour plus a $5,000 signing bonus and a $200 annual stipend for work boots.

Crowned Ridge is operated by NextEra Energy, a Florida-based company that runs wind farms across the country. A recent check of NextEra’s website revealed 396 job openings, with 185 related specifically to wind energy.

“No matter what happens with fossil fuels, we can keep going (with renewable energy) and live off that, and it will benefit everybody in the world. And we won’t have to rely on another country,” Bekaert said of his career choice.

A systematic approach to workforce development

The South Dakota technical school system, which also includes campuses in Sioux Falls and Rapid City, has developed a close working relationship with the energy industry to ensure students learn the right skills and employers can tap into a pipeline of well-trained workers.

Lake Area Tech officials go into local public schools to promote energy and other trade jobs starting in elementary grades, Sanderson said.

At Mitchell Tech, vice president for enrollment services Clayton Deuter said the college now offers a one-year wind energy degree instead of a two-year program, a change made after energy companies said some skills taught in the longer program could be obtained on the job instead.

Deuter said the energy programs at Mitchell Tech are an easy sell to students and their parents due to the low cost compared to a four-year college and the availability of Build Dakota scholarships in which students get tuition paid if they work in South Dakota for three years after graduation.

Mitchell Tech also offers a dual-enrollment program to high school students so they can have a wind energy degree from the college in hand by the time they graduate.

“You think about return on investment, and here you can take one year in the wind turbine program and you can graduate and make $80,000 to $100,000 a year,” Deuter said. “With student loan debt being so crazy, you don’t have to bankrupt yourself financially and be tethered to a student loan payment when you’re trying to buy a house and start a family.”

One of the state’s biggest renewable energy employers is Marmen Energy in Brandon. The Canadian-owned company has 285 employees who build wind towers up to 300-feet tall that are shipped to wind farms nationwide.

Aimee Miritello, human resources manager, said the company’s relationships with high schools and technical colleges form a pillar of the company’s worker recruitment strategy to overcome a nagging lack of workers in the trade fields.

“Historically for us that has been one of our best ways of getting qualified employees,” she said.

Marmen has expanded its South Dakota plant to accommodate what Miritello said has been a steady increase in demand for wind towers across the country.

Marmen workers, who include welders, painters and other construction tradespeople, make a good wage, are offered one of the best benefit packages in the region and have strong opportunities for internal advancement, she said.

“Plus, they’re a part of making huge wind towers, so their pride in that is pretty big,” she said.

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