People on the tiny San Juan island of Decatur said the grid would ruin their community’s character.
SAN JUAN COUNTY, Wash. — Locals on Decatur Island in the San Juans worry a sizable chunk of their island is being sacrificed for green energy and are pushing back against a proposed solar grid expansion.
Decatur Island, located due west of Anacortes, is just 3.5 square miles.
Like most people on Decatur Island, Ramy Tipton appreciates the simple life. Only about 70 people live on the island, year round. There is a one-room schoolhouse. There are no paved roads and a small water truck acts as the fire department.
“We feel like we’re in the womb of mother nature here,” said Tipton.
But that simple life isn’t quite so simple anymore.
“Well things certainly get complicated,” said Tipton.
Seven years ago the local power company, OPALCO, installed a 3.5-acre solar grid. For the most part, everyone was fine with it. Then came word about phase two: Twenty more acres of solar panels along the one main road that runs through the community, in the middle of an island that’s only 2,200 acres to begin with.
“To eliminate those woods would just be devastating to the community as a whole,” said 25-year resident Dawni Cummington.
“What they’ve chosen to call a ‘micro grid,’ I would argue that on Decatur that’s not a micro grid at all,” added Kendra Lamb, whose family dates back to 1870 on the island.
Opponents of the plan believe the 20-acre grid is much better suited to any one of the much bigger islands. San Juan Island is nearly 36,000 acres, and Orcas Island, 37,000.
As it stands right now Decatur is the only island generating solar power.
“I think most people feel we’ve done our equitable part,” said Cummington. “Once some of the other islands step up and install solar, then come back to us.”
“When we complain about things, it usually falls on deaf ears,” said Andrew Wood, who has lived on Decatur for 47 years.
An OPALCO spokesperson told KING 5 the supply of electricity in Washington is not keeping up with the demand. Power usage on Decatur is expected to rise by 30% over the next 10 years. OPALCO said the new grid would cover that increase.
“We see that there has got to be tradeoffs,” said OPALCO’s Krista Bouchey. “If we want to have reliable power into the future, we have to decide which tradeoffs we are willing to make.”
The proposed grid also would allow the island to store electricity to be used in the event of storms or heatwaves.
As for why Decatur is being chosen and not one of the other islands, Bouchey said that, too, is a matter of supply and demand.
“For most land, it’s a hard no,” Bouchey said. “We can’t even put these projects on it. So, we’ve been keeping our eyes out for places where we can place these and get them permitted. This is one of those places.”
There are supporters of the project on the island. One writing, they are quieter than grid opponents because they don’t want to have “confrontations with (their) fellow islanders.”
A petition opposing the project is circulating around the island.
For now, townspeople plan to pack a San Juan County Commission meeting May 20 to demand the place they love be preserved.
