Despite once having the nickname “The Sunshine State,” which now belongs to Florida, South Dakota only averages about 2,700 hours of sunlight per year. That may seem like a lot, but The Mount Rushmore State doesn’t rank anywhere near the top of the list (Yuma, Arizona at around 4,000 hours each year.)
“A lot of people are like, ‘You’re crazy to start a renewable energy business in South Dakota,’” said Dwight Patterson, CEO of GenPro Energy Solutions, a provider of energy-efficient technologies, which includes solar power. As anyone who has ever been sunburned on a cloudy day can tell you, it might not be visible, but if it’s daytime, the sun is there.
Maybe you’ve passed GenPro while traveling on Interstate 90 near Piedmont—the modern-looking buildings huddled together in a small compound, solar panels on the roofs—and wondered, “What goes on at that place?”
Well, it’s worth your time to find out, because GenPro Energy Solutions makes big ideas happen for big projects. Black Hills State University, NASA, Ellsworth Air Force Base, the Department of Defense, the Marines—all organizations with which GenPro has worked.
Dwight, 53, a Rapid City Central High School graduate and Rapid City local, cut his teeth working internationally doing power generation projects, usually procuring water for developing nations.
“I started at Black Hill State University for business. I got a little anxious to get on with it, so I didn’t finish there,” he said. “I ended up jumping right into business. In 1997, my brother and I started an export company in the power generation industry.”
During those years, Dwight began to recognize the potential in renewable energy and decided to shift his focus in that direction. Concerns about energy infrastructure failure due to the so-called year 2000 problem brought a larger awareness to renewable energy.
“At that time, rural utilities were getting fairly pricey when it came to bringing power out to a remote area, and ranchers were looking for alternatives.”
Dwight took a risk and dove into solar, founding GenPro Energy Solutions in 2003, as a way to try and meet the need for energy delivery to remote areas. In a pleasant twist, rural utilities frequently recommended his services, which helped GenPro to grow.
“In the early days, we adopted this concept that if GenPro is going to do it, it’s going to work. Before we deploy technology, we’ve taken it through a fairly rigorous process of evaluation before we ever give it to a customer.”
While GenPro doesn’t do many strictly residential projects anymore, Dwight encourages other players to get involved. “It promotes solar technology,” he said. “It’s very cost effective. So it’s here to stay and it’s going to continue to grow. South Dakota happens to be ranked near the bottom for solar deployment in the country in terms of implementation of the technology.”
While the majority of GenPro’s large scale solar projects have been located in other states, Dwight’s love for South Dakota is what made him decide to found—and keep—his business here. “Many times people have overlooked the offerings that are on a local level, because they think they have to go outside of the state to find what they’re looking for. That’s not the case.”
Still, Dwight stays devoted to his home state. “People don’t recognize the talent levels that we have in South Dakota. Some folks that have been at GenPro for 10 years, in their early days had very simple positions and didn’t even have the education at the time. We will invest in people getting education in whatever area that they’re interested in—our industry, our business—to see where there is opportunity for them to grow. I want to provide a place where, if they’ve got the right attitude, right aptitude, we will help them to achieve their goals.”
In his free time, Dwight often returns to his roots, designing and developing water purification technologies or water supply systems for hospitals, missions and communities in developing countries. Having grown up in a ranching family, he has a keen understanding of the importance of water.
“It’s cool to get involved and see something that actually makes a difference to somebody’s life,” he said. “It’s amazing how many people in this world don’t have access to clean drinking water. It blows my mind.”
This story was originally published in the August 2025 issue of Elevate Magazine.
