Solar Feasibility Studies Completed for Community Buildings
We are pleased to share the Final Feasibility Studies carried out by Cascadia Renewables in October 2024 through funding from Washington’s Climate Commitment Act. The CCA supports Washington’s climate action efforts by putting cap-and-invest dollars to work reducing climate pollution, creating jobs, and improving public health. Information about the CCA is available at www.climate.wa.gov.
While the full reports and appendices contain great detail, below is a short summary of the findings and recommendation for each site.
Community Centre - Solar and back-up is not appropriate for the roof of the Community Centre for several structural reasons. Should the Parks and Recreation District decide to pursue solar and backup to support their resiliency and back up power, Cascadia recommends a ground mounted solar system in the north east part of the parking lot (outside of the pickleball area).
Library - As a newer building, the library is an ideal space for solar and back-up although it would be a small system to support their energy and back-up needs.
Water District - The Water District has an ideal building for solar and battery which could support their energy storage in case of an outage and extend the duration of their generator run time. A small solar panel on the small building outside the water tower is also feasible and will reduce manual efforts to move generators to that building when the power goes down. The Reservoir is a good potential site for a pole mounted community solar project.
Fire District - With some upgrades to the Fire District roof, solar and battery storage is feasible. It would be a big enough system to provide strong back-up to the existing generator and extend the period that the Fire District could be self-sufficient in a time of an emergency.
Trinity Church - The age, shading and structure of the Trinity Church do not make it a feasible location for solar and backup. There is some potential to construct a pole mounted solar structure across the street in the parking area although that would involve trenching and potential upgrades to the grid infrastructure.
Our next steps are to work with all of our partners to determine how we want to move forward as a community. If we do decide to pursue community solar and back-up, WA Commerce staff and Cascadia Renewables are ready to support us in identifying potential funding sources.
