A greener grid: Tribe, HSU celebrate groundbreaking of self-sustaining, renewable energy system

August 25, 2015

The Blue Lake Rancheria along with a host of local, state, and national officials celebrated the groundbreaking of the tribe’s new low-emission, microgrid energy system on Monday that will allow the rancheria to use self-generated renewable power to literally go off the grid in cases of emergency or in periods of high energy use.

Standing on a large patch of dirt at the north end of the Blue Lake Casino and Hotel, shovel-wielding tribal members stood side by side with national and state energy officials as they turned the dirt on the grid’s future solar energy site. The project is set to be completed in the summer of 2016 and in operation that fall.

Blue Lake Rancheria Energy Director and the tribe’s project manager Jana Ganion said the multi-component grid serves two purposes: to provide community resiliency — or “life and safety level power” — and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by using renewable energy sources such as solar, biomass, and energy storage.

“While the international and the national discussions move along at their own pace, the Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe just decided we’re just going to implement,” Ganion said. “The science is there — let’s implement.”

The project is a collaborative effort between the tribe and the Humboldt State University Schatz Energy Research Center, and is funded through a $5 million Electric Program Investment Charge grant from the California Energy Commission. Once completed, nearly 50 percent of the power required for the tribe’s government offices and associated businesses the casino and hotel will come from renewable energy sources — far exceeding the state’s goal of 33 percent renewable power by 2020.

The rancheria was recognized by the White House and U.S. Department of Energy in December 2014 as one of 16 “Climate Action Champions” chosen throughout the nation.

Noting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s recent report that this past July was the warmest month on record worldwide since climate monitoring began, Schatz Energy Research Center Director Peter Lehman said that the tribe and its many partners are collaborating on the project for “a larger purpose.”

“Our planet is on fire,” he said. “We have to stop pumping carbon into our atmosphere. That means changing from business as usual to a renewable energy future.”

A troop of local, state and national level officials attended the ceremony to speak on the project, including 2nd District U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), U.S. Department of Energy Office of Indian Energy Director Christopher Deschene, Humboldt State University President Lisa Rossbacher and California Energy Commissioner Karen Douglas. The topic that united the 10 speakers’ remarks was the recognition of the partnerships that made the energy project a reality as well as a potential model for other communities across the nation.

“I really want Congress to take note,” Huffman said to the crowd of nearly 100 attendees seated outside of the tribe’s biomass generator building. “The technologies that you are deploying here today in Humboldt County are going to serve as examples of what we can accomplish and the problems that we can solve if we work together. That is the story I take back to Washington with me.”

Along with local partners like PG&E, the project’s ties also extend to the international level with Europe’s largest engineering company Siemens providing the microgrid’s management software. Ganion said this system will allow the tribe to program their microgrid to produce more energy than what the grid may be providing should, for an example, a hot day require more air conditioning.

“What’s especially important about this one is the possibility of layering in renewable energy,” Ganion said.

Should the power supply line to the county become damaged or if a natural disaster should occur, the system would be able to provide and store enough power to keep the rancheria powered on its own for months at a time. With the rancheria also serving as a certified Red Cross emergency shelter, Ganion said it’s important to have energy to produce clean drinking water and adequate shelter.

“We knew that in an emergency, people are going to come,” Ganion said. “... We’d better be prepared for them.”


Source: By Will Houston