Del Norte Board approves SiteLogic letter to pursue community solar microgrid feasibility

The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Jan. 28 to authorize a letter of agreement with SiteLogic to pursue feasibility and preliminary design work for a community solar generation and microgrid project aimed at offsetting utility costs and improving power resiliency for critical county facilities.

The agreement approved by the board authorizes SiteLogic to coordinate preliminary engineering, interconnection discussions with Pacific Power and scoped design work. The item did not obligate the county to pay for feasibility work at this stage; the company said a development cap of $35,000 would apply later in the process if the county agreed to move into funded design phases.

Supporters told the board the project could reduce ongoing utility costs and provide backup power to essential services. “It is to reduce costs, have that resiliency and backup during emergencies,” SiteLogic’s representative said during the hearing, describing the work as a feasibility step that would include financial pro formas and a projected 25-year cash-flow model that accounts for operation and maintenance costs.

Board members and county staff emphasized that the proposed project must comply with government code requirements that local energy projects be self-funding. “These projects have to be self funded under government code 4217,” the SiteLogic representative said, adding that the company’s contracts include long-term maintenance and warranty obligations rather than leaving the county with open future liabilities.

Public comment was mixed. Crescent City resident and regular commenter Sam Strait urged caution, calling microgrids an “appalling bit of nonsense” and warning of recurring replacement costs for panels and batteries. Crescent City Harbor Commissioner John Evans said the harbor had seen a net benefit from its own solar and encouraged county-harbor coordination: “It’s a net positive to the harbor,” he told the board.

Supervisors described critical facilities that would benefit if the project is installed: sheriff dispatch, the county’s emergency operations center at the Flynn campus, Veterans Hall used for sheltering, and road department facilities. Board members also noted the project could help during public-safety power shutoffs and other outages.

The motion to authorize the letter of agreement passed on a roll call vote: Supervisors Short, Wilson, Starkey and Howard voted yes; Chair Borges voted no.

Next steps described by SiteLogic include further coordination with Pacific Power on interconnection, targeted preliminary designs for prioritized county facilities and production of a financial pro forma that will set expected savings and lifecycle costs. The board’s authorization allows SiteLogic to proceed with that feasibility work; any construction or funded contract would require separate board approvals.

Why this matters: Del Norte County is at the end of a single major utility line and has experienced storm- and fire-related outages; the feasibility study aims to quantify whether on-site generation and storage can reliably support critical services and lower utility costs over time.

The county document packet shows no immediate county expenditure tied to the letter of agreement. Further technical and budget details were described as part of future deliverables if the project continues beyond feasibility.