Solar Lighting installed next to a roadway

Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Returns to the SmartLight Solar Street Light Solution

A symbolic location under development

The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation (CRIR) was created in 1889. It covers an area of 4,267 square miles in South Dakota, making it the fourth-largest Indian reservation in the United States. Its largest incorporated city is Eagle Butte. Today, the CRIR is home to 8,470 Sioux / Lakota people.

Demand for electric lighting is growing, but grid cabling is difficult, due to the sheer size of the reservation. As the Eagle Butte community pursues its development strategy, it decided on a new public lighting system, running entirely on solar energy. The Fonroche SmartLight was selected as the solution of choice. The project was sold and installed by Fonroche Certified installation partner, GenPro Energy Solutions.

High-performance solar road lighting

Previously poorly lit after nightfall, Eagle Butte city center and the reservation’s access roads are now equipped with 80 off-grid solar streetlights from our Smartlight family. Quality of life has been transformed for local residents, with guaranteed lighting 365 nights a year, thanks to our unique battery system. The winter weather in South Dakota can be extreme, but the Power365 battery system is designed to withstand even the harshest conditions, ensuring powerful, dependable year-round lighting.

As well as improving road safety for the reservation, the choice of solar lighting reflects the community’s deep commitment to ecology. The Fonroche off-grid solar streetlights run entirely on solar energy and therefore have a zero carbon footprint and cause no damage to the environment!

Based on a successful initial deployment, CRIR has launched a second SmartLight solar street lighting project in 2020.