Co-designing clean energy solutions in partnership with communities and tribes in Washington state
Washington state law mandates investments in clean energy projects that benefit overburdened communities, as well as projects with Tribal support.
Inspired by the UW Engineering Industry Capstone Program, CEI established the Community Capstones in Clean Energy course (CHEM E 497B) in 2022–23 for UW Engineering seniors to work hands-on with communities and tribes in Washington state. UW student teams partner with community representatives to co-design clean energy solutions, supported by CEI director Daniel T. Schwartz and Washington Clean Energy Testbeds senior staff scientist Dr. Bosong Li.
Partnering with CEI
Contact uwcei@uw.edu to discuss a capstone partnership, or other ways to work with CEI.
Under Washington state law, significant funding is available for projects that support community goals such as:
- Reducing electricity cost burdens or generating income
- Lowering emissions and improving local air quality
- Electrifying key industries and services
- Sustaining energy supplies during power outages
- Investigating energy burdens and/or the clean energy transition
An initial conversation with CEI could include:
- Exploring the scope of your interests in clean energy.
- Estimating costs, benefits, and impacts of clean energy projects.
- Performing an energy analysis that can support your grant application for a community resiliency hub or cooling center, meet a decarbonization target, or lower energy bills.
- Discussing specific data and analysis required to pursue an identified federal opportunity.
- Exploring how new federal direct pay tax credits might enable business opportunities for nonprofit organizations and tribal nations.
Example project timeline
Prep call with CEI — month 0
- Explore the scope of your interests in clean energy.
- Discuss specific data and analysis for an identified grant opportunity.
- Discuss opportunities to fit a range of possible goals, such as creating a community resiliency hub in case of a Cascadia quake, meeting decarbonization targets, or lowering energy bills for low-income residents in tribal housing.
- Explore technical and economic opportunities to launch a new tribal enterprise that sells power to a utility.
Preliminary data review — month 1
- Identify data that is relevant to project goals.
- Retrieve metering data through online utility accounts.
- Work with utilities to gather additional data.
- Create a model dataset using (for example) national data adapted to local conditions.
Project scope statement — months 2-3
- Community liaisons partner with CEI to outline the basic scope, goals, and deliverables for the project.
- Work back from a due date for a funding opportunity to set intermediate and final goals.
Project execution — months 3-9
- Weekly one-hour meetings between community liasons and CEI, with updates on work done,reasons for decisions, and progress toward goals.
- Project site visit to fulfill partner goals such as a presentation to leadership or a classroom visit (UW CEI has a K-12 education program supported by professional staff and graduate trainees).
Technical analysis
Technical analysis is performed at the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds within its Systems Integration Testbed. Dr. Bosong Li operates a sophisticated computer model of a microgrid on a world-class Real Time Digital Simulator. The model is based on UW CEI analysis of the Snohomish PUD-Clean Energy Fund microgrid.
The Testbeds user agreement extends data privacy and control of intellectual property to sovereign nations and nonprofit organizations as well as entrepreneurs and companies.
2024 Capstone Projects
Clean Energy Options for the Suquamish Tribal Museum and House of Awakened Culture
Partner organization: Suquamish Tribe
Student team: Christopher Le, Tuan Huynh, and Vinh Pham
Community liaison: Hannah Ljunggren, Climate Resilience Program Manager, Suquamish Tribe
For the Suquamish Tribal Museum, the team estimated that 100 kW of solar with a 90 kWh battery would save over $50,000 in net present value, while requiring about 90% of the capital grant-financed by or direct-pay credit for break-even in a decade. Relative to the existing diesel backup generator that provides about 80 hours of resilient power, solar+storage could roughly double the Museum’s ability to operate through a grid outage.
For the House of Awakened Culture, assuming replacement of the propane boiler with a heat pump, the team estimated that a 100 kW solar array with 200 kWh of battery storage would generate over $130,000 net present value savings, requiring at least 80% grant-financing of capital. The upgrade would eliminate about 42 metric tons of annual carbon pollution.
A Decarbonization Blueprint for Clallam County’s Headquarters
Partner organizations: Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Port Angeles City Light
Student team: Aya Alayli, Shawnie Peng, and Jonathan Wierzbicki
Community liaison: Diane Harvey, Chief Civil Deputy, Clallam County Sheriff’s Office
The Clallam County team found that transitioning 20 light-duty vehicles to electric vehicle alternatives (32% of the county’s fleet) reduces travel-based carbon emissions by 59% over 10 years, saving 1,700 metric tons of CO2 and up to $400,000 in transportation energy costs. Vehicle electrification is easily scheduled into the existing utility infrastructure, with capacity to allow for future EV expansion. Building upgrades and behind-the-meter generation improve the energy efficiency of the site and provide additional resiliency benefits. Capital investment in the courthouse boiler has an unsubsidized payback under 10 years, while the lighting plan, solar, and battery storage require grant subsidy to achieve 10-year payback.
Envisioning Beacon Hill Clean Energy & Climate Resilience
Partner organizations: Beacon Hill Council Seattle, El Centro de la Raza, Filipino Community of Seattle
Student team: Francesca Abraham, Kevin Gamundi, Henri Lower, and Paww Yenbut
Community liaison: Maria Batayola, Beacon Hill Council Chair
This project sought to enhance community resilience and reduce the impact of climate change in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. The Beacon Hill Clean Energy and Climate Resilience Task Force was referred to CEI by UW environmental & occupational health sciences professor Edmund Seto and the UW Center for Environmental Health Equity, which partnered with the Beacon Hill Task Force to study public health impacts of transportation and fossil energy use. CEHE research identified a heat island, air quality, and noise pollution as burdens on the health of Beacon Hill residents.
Project co-design goals include decarbonization of buildings, lowering energy burdens through utility bill savings, and providing energy resilience to support vulnerable populations. The ultimate goal is to create a network of 12 cooling centers with diverse language support in existing community centers throughout the neighborhood, meeting residents where they are already comfortable going in case of emergency. The capstone project provided a thorough understanding of how each site operates in regards to energy used and potential savings in cost and emissions, and built Beacon Hill’s capacity to apply for clean energy and climate resilience grants.
Improving Power Quality at 7 Cedars Casino
Partner organization: Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
Project team: Logan Mar, Charlie Reyerson, Jonathan Schaller, and Dylan Trivelli
Community liaison: Robert Knapp, Environmental Planning Manager & Climate Resilience Lead, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe (JST) is the second-largest employer in Clallam County, located on the Olympic Peninsula. JST and liaison Robert Knapp returned as Community Capstone partners from 2023.
Gaming is a significant source of revenue for the JST, and electronic games are susceptible to damage from poor power quality. This project aimed to future-proof growth in gaming loads by identifying strategies to monitor and mitigate power quality issues. The UW team conducted a site visit with JST electrical staff in March 2024, which included a walkthrough and review of power hardware and the consequences of power quality issues. The team identified harmonics that could increase current in the system and provided resiliency and mitigation options to minimize damage, created a balancing plan using real load data, and provided guidance on proposed system improvements such as transformer upgrades and branch circuit monitoring.
2023 Capstone Projects
Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe Community Resiliency Center
Partner organization: Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
Student team: Vanessa Affandy, Aimee Phung, Cody Young
Community liaison: Robert Knapp, Environmental Planning Manager & Climate Resilience Lead, Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe
The Olympic Peninsula has limited electrical transmission capacity, limited on-peninsula repair crews, and disaster-vulnerable landscapes and populations, resulting in poor electrical reliability and susceptibility to long duration power outages. This student team worked to explore the cost and capabilities of a renewable energy generation & storage microgrid to make the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe’s tribal community center a resiliency hub that keeps critical communications infrastructure live while supporting other community needs during long duration power outages.
Desired outcomes this student team worked towards include a final engineering report that:
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- Describes the context for the study, including a statement of the community resiliency goals and metrics based on community input, and the data sources available for estimating the electrical loads in the community center, solar and wind energy potential of the site, and other environmental factors (site hazards, fuel availability, etc.)
- Applies community priorities and engineering principles to determine microgrid infrastructure needs and costs to support the highest priority loads under several discrete operational scenarios, for example, outages occurring in summer vs winter, and for islanded operation of days, weeks, or months (following a catastrophic disaster).
- Detailed technoeconomic analysis of a base case design, including engineering drawings, site analysis, component lists and estimated pricing, with performance informed by real time digital simulation of the renewable grid operated over a typical one year period at the site.
A stretch goal for this project that the student team could work toward is exploring alternative cases, such as considering the role of bidirectional charging of mobile resiliency units the Tribe has funding to purchase.
Microgrids for Community Resiliency on the Olympic Peninsula
Partner organization: Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management
Student team: Rahul Prashanth Gubbala, Samuel Luong, David Schulman, Q Thai Tran
Community liaisons: Willie Bence, Director; David Codier, Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Supervisor, Jefferson County Emergency Management
Poor electricity reliability and slow restoration of power is an everyday issue for residents of the Olympic Peninsula, but FEMA suggests that the civilian response time for a significant regional event (e.g., major Cascadia fault earthquake) will be from 3 months to one year, with an expectation that the population be prepared for self-sufficiency during that period. The Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management is concerned about their reliance on fossil fuel back-up generators to support the department, sheriff, and 911 centers, and worked with a student team to explore the cost and capabilities of a renewable energy generation & storage microgrid for long duration power outages.
Desired outcomes this student team worked towards including a final engineering report that:
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- Describes the context for the study, including a statement of the resiliency goals and metrics based on DEM staff input, and the data sources available for estimating the electrical loads, solar and wind energy potential of the site, and other environmental factors (site hazards, fuel availability, etc.)
- Applies DEM priorities and engineering principles to determine microgrid infrastructure needs and costs to support the highest priority loads under several discrete operational scenarios, for example, outages occurring in summer vs winter, and for islanded operation of days, weeks, or months (following a catastrophic disaster).
- Detailed technoeconomic analysis of the base case design, including engineering drawing, component lists and pricing estimates, with performance of the design evaluated using real-time digital simulation.
Power for a Resilient Fairchild Airport
Partner organization: Clallam County Sheriff’s Office, Division of Emergency Management
Student team: Chenyang Tian, Evan Bowman, Sophia Votava, Wesley Hinthorne King
Community liaison: Diane Harvey, Chief Civil Deputy
Fairchild Airport (CLM) in Port Angeles is the federal staging area for disaster relief on the Olympic Peninsula after a catastrophic regional event. The emergency management division of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office sees great need for a more resilient Fairchild Airport (CLM). Approximately $1 billion of FAA funding is available annually through the Airport Terminal Program (ATP) to address aging infrastructure in terminals and control towers, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote energy efficiency, and increase climate resilience.
This student team worked to create a renewable solar/storage microgrid that would allow the terminal and control tower to remain operational during extended power outages. As a second phase of the project, the student team worked to support the goals of the FAA ATP funding guidelines, but be flexible enough to accommodate an emergency operations center using engineering design and analysis.
Desired outcomes the student team worked towards included a final engineering report that:
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- Describes the context for the study, including a statement of the resiliency goals and metrics that align the FAA funding opportunity and community input, and the data sources available for estimating the electrical loads, solar and wind energy potential of the site, and other environmental factors (site hazards, fuel availability, etc.)
- Aligns FAA requirements with community priorities and engineering principles to determine microgrid infrastructure needs and costs to support the highest priority loads under several discrete operational scenarios, for example, outages occurring in summer vs winter, and for islanded operation of days, weeks, or months (following a catastrophic disaster).
- Detailed technoeconomic analysis of the base case design, including engineering drawing, component lists and pricing estimates, with performance of the design evaluated using real-time digital simulation. Highlight design features that allow flexible expansion of the microgrid capabilities for a future EOC at an adjacent site.