Regional Planning and Coordination

“It is important to strive to do

things right. And to the Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) that means dynamic and adaptive energy planning for Humboldt’s warm inland mountain valleys to cool bayfront cities and everywhere in between. Community input is imperative to achieving sustainable results and was the cornerstone of the 2019 update to the Humboldt County Comprehensive Action Plan for Energy (CAPE), the strategic plan originally adopted in 2012 that guides how RCEA implements its mission.

In early 2019, the County of Humboldt began working in coordination with the seven incorporated cities to develop a Humboldt County 2040 Climate Action Plan. Updating RCEA’s strategic plan in parallel with the development of the County’s Climate Action Plan offered the opportunity to align targets and strategies. An update also offered a chance to gather and incorporate other regional energy planning documents that have been developed since 2012, such as the North Coast Plug-in Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan (2014) and the County General Plan Energy Element (2017), to better coordinate our collective efforts towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

By mid-2019, staff reorganized strategies from the CAPE and subsequent planning documents into four focus areas: Regional Planning & Coordination, Integrated Demand Side Management, Low-Carbon Transportation, and Generation & Utility Services. With input from the Community Advisory Committee, RCEA then presented these draft strategies to the public, and through an open comment period and a series of workshops refined the high-level strategies and added quantitative targets.

As an electricity provider, RCEA is compelled to meet California’s bold mandates for increasing renewable energy delivered to customers. But the community asked RCEA to deeply consider if State targets would be enough to effectively slow climate change, and how RCEA’s approach could best meet the multiple priorities of Humboldt County residents. These priorities include maximizing the potential of local energy sources, developing a robust local economy, and carefully considering how our energy choices affect the health of humans and non-humans alike. The resulting document, renamed RePower Humboldt, is how we propose to lay the path to a healthier, just, greenhouse gas-free energy future.

After experiencing multiple power shutoffs in 2019, a prominent theme among community members was energy reliability. How might we create an energy system that stays steady during emergencies? Always up for a challenge, this is a question the energy researchers at the Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University had already thought about quite a bit. Having worked with the Blue Lake Rancheria to build a solar-powered microgrid- a small electricity generation and distribution grid capable of being disconnected from the greater California grid to keep the Rancheria facilities powered during disruptions- it was clear that a micro-approach could be an achievable solution to keep key County facilities powered through disruptions and a viable replacement for fossil fuel-powered back-up generators. With RCEA as a partner, the Schatz Center took on growing the microgrid concept into a system that would serve multiple customers- including the California Redwood Coast Humboldt County Airport.

GOALS for Regional Planning and Coordination

Achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions county-wide by 2030.

By 2030 fully establish Humboldt County as an energy secure community that can affordably and reliably meet its local energy needs with local renewable resources and has the robust local capabilities and infrastructure necessary to effectively respond to any energy emergencies or disruptions in energy supply.

Build the clean energy sector into a cornerstone of the local economy through a breadth of strategies that include innovation, research and development, local energy-related business development, and establishing Humboldt Bay as the primary west coast hub for the offshore wind energy industry.

Local renewable energy resources come in all sizes, and floating offshore wind energy is arguably the biggest option in both stature- turbines may exceed 800 feet in height- and output. Harnessing the very strong winds off the coast of Humboldt County could power our County and beyond. Becoming the west-coast hub of deployment of this cutting-edge technology is a lengthy endeavor but, if feasible, could build the first wind energy project of its kind in the U.S.”

Lori Biondini

Director of Business Planning and Finance

In early 2019, Humboldt County local governments decided to take a joint approach to climate action planning to develop a regional Climate Action Plan (CAP) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Regional CAP partnership consists of RCEA, the County of Humboldt and the city governments of Arcata, Eureka, Blue Lake, Ferndale, Fortuna, Rio Dell and Trinidad. Together, these local governments are working to develop strategies to reduce emissions throughout our region. The plan will include locally-oriented strategies to reduce emissions from vehicle travel, electricity consumption, natural gas use, and other sources of greenhouse gases.

Local Renewable Energy Projects

Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid

RCEA is making progress towards innovative power resilience at the regional airport and Coast Guard station by installing the first front-of-the-meter, multi-customer microgrid in California. We’re partnering with the Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University, the County of Humboldt, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company to build a 7-acre, 2.25 MW solar array and battery energy storage system at the California Redwood Coast – Humboldt County Airport (ACV). The County will house the airport microgrid, RCEA will own and operate the solar and battery systems, PG&E will operate the microgrid circuit, and the Schatz Center will be the prime contractor responsible for the project design and technology integration. Design work wrapped up early in 2020 and the project team was ready to start construction last summer, but COVID-19 quickly reset these plans. The pandemic slowed our ability to finalize a lease agreement with the County, obtain project review and approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, and complete a loan agreement through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. All tasks got back on track last summer, but the delays pushed construction into the rainy season. We’ve decided to slip our schedule a full year, with ground-breaking now scheduled for April 2021, and final completion by December 2021. Much of the work in late 2021 will involve commissioning and testing, with little or no construction work that would be impacted by weather delays. On a positive note, the delay helps us to further explore the more complex questions around a multi-tenant microgrid, such as operational roles and responsibilities, cost recovery, and cybersecurity. This project continues to receive national attention as the first front-of-the-meter microgrid in California, particularly with the increasing urgency for resiliency, and we’re proud of our role to evolve how communities generate, deliver, and use electricity at our homes and businesses.

What Is...?

A microgrid is a small network of electricity users with a nearby source of power that is attached to a centralized grid but can function independently. Our airport microgrid will be able to “island” from the main grid so the airport and adjacent Coast Guard facility can run fully on solar power and batteries if there is a regional power outage.

Humboldt County has been featured in local, national and international news since 2018 as a potentially ideal location for offshore wind energy generation. RCEA, tasked with developing local renewable resources and energy-related economic advancement, has taken the lead on coordinating the extensive planning and research process required for what could be California’s first floating offshore wind project. This is a 100-150 MW offshore wind project that would be located approximately 25 miles from Eureka. In 2018 the RCEA Board of Directors selected a team of companies -- EDPR Offshore North America, Aker Solutions, and Principle Power—as partners for a public-private partnership to pursue developing this project. While conversations with local fishermen, tribes, environmentalists, labor unions and government partners are ongoing, our community’s initial response has been optimistic. RCEA is committed to advancing the responsible development of our offshore wind resource in a manner that maximizes benefits to the local community. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) oversees the potential auction of offshore leases for research and commercial development. Together with a joint local-state-federal-tribal task force, they are coordinating communications and research. In addition to BOEM, RCEA is also working closely with decision makers in Sacramento and local community stakeholders, including the fishing industry whose members have voiced concerns about compatibility of ocean wind energy and commercial fishing. The strength and speed of the wind about 20 miles off Humboldt Bay, where the projects are being considered, are among the best in the country. Our port authority’s interest in upgrades to the harbor, the unobstructed entrance to the bay , and our willing and skilled workforce are also very appealing to the offshore wind industry. The clean, reliable electricity that could be generated here would go far in helping California balance its electricity supply and achieve its 100% renewable energy goal. Offshore wind is nothing new; turbines have been mounted on fixed foundations and generating electricity all over the planet for nearly three decades. European seas host more than 5,000 turbines now. What is new is the floating turbine technology, which has already been successfully deployed in Europe. The turbines are larger and more powerful than their fixed-bottom counterparts. The turbines will be installed on floating foundations like the one designed by Principle Power, one of our consortium partners. These semi-submersible platforms are tethered to the seabed like an anchored ship. The Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University has published a comprehensive offshore wind report along with a webinar series featuring many expert analyses. You can access all of this on their website: www.schatzcenter.org/wind. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has also recently deployed two Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) buoys off our coast to collect data for 12 months, moving the multi-year research process forward.