Pacific Northwest

Quinault Indian Nation Microgrid, Taholah, Washington

April 2018

The Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) is a tribal community located on the Olympic Peninsula in the Pacific Northwest. Due to climate change and its proximity to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the tribal village of Taholah (population 850) is under threat from tsunamis, storm surges and riverine flooding. The tribe is therefore in the planning stages of a $60 million effort to relocate the community to higher, safer ground, making them some of the world’s first climate change refugees.

Although moving an entire community away from the place where your people have lived for generations is obviously a daunting — not to mention emotional — process, it does offer a blank slate on which to design the ideal community. And the QIN is taking the opportunity to do just that by exploring ways they can make their community more sustainable and resilient, while also lowering their utility costs.

Through a project led by our partners at Bonneville Environmental Foundation, muGrid Analytics performed a techno-economic feasibility analysis of how solar and storage could be included in the design of a new community for both cost savings and enhanced resiliency.

Proposed relocation area of the Quinault Indian Nation (Courtesy QIN)