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| Blue Lake Rancheria Microgrid, CA (One Step off the Grid) |
The Blue Lake Rancheria microgrid saved lives when its owner welcomed in the broader community during the recent sweep of wild-fire related power shut offs in northwest Humboldt County, California. The Rancheria and its estate are owned by three Indian tribes.
The microgrid kept the tribes’ casino, hotel and offices powered up and enabled the tribes to set aside some of its hotel rooms for medical patients who needed electric power for their medical devices. This assistance saved at least four lives.
The microgrid also provided a safe, warm environment for local families to charge mobile phones and access the internet; power to charge electric vehicles; and it was also able to provide a mobile office for Humboldt’s daily newspaper. The tribes served about 10,000 people during the electricity outages which were enacted to lower the fire risk.
The Rancheria has a 430kW solar photovoltaic array with a 500kW, 2kWh Tesla battery storage system complemented by two legacy diesel generators with a combined capacity of 1.8MW. There are plans to upgrade the microgrid next year.
Read more: How a renewable microgrid saved lives in the California wild-fires. One Step off the Grid, November 14, 2019.
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