Yəhaw̓
The Tulalip Tribes are working to build a solar-powered microgrid on their reservation to combat power outages and increase community resilience.
Sun shines through a solar panel roof on the back deck of the Tulalip Gathering Hall on May 1, 2024 at the Tulalip Reservation, WA. // Photo by Nick Whitehead
Story by Mason White // Photos by Nick Whitehead
June 13, 2024
As Angel Cortez, a member of The Tulalip Tribes, looks over Tulalip Bay he tells a Snohomish story called Lifting Up the Sky. As the story goes, the sky used to sit so low that anytime someone tried to stand up, they would hit their head. But no one knew who was strong enough to lift it on their own.
After much deliberation, it was decided everyone would have to come together at the same time to lift the sky. A word was created for this moment: yəhaw̓ (pronounced ya-howt), meaning to proceed, to go forward, to do the work. All at once, using long poles, everyone began shouting “yəhaw̓” again and again until they lifted the sky to where it sits today.
“A story like that has a lot of knowledge about working together, problem-solving, coming up with a solution, one word for everything,” Cortez said. “We're all unique and individualized but we all fit the solution. We're the piece to the puzzle.”
In a world with 8 billion people, it can be difficult to know where your piece fits or what the final puzzle will look like. But for Cortez, the emergency preparedness manager for The Tulalip Tribes, puzzle pieces, like members of his tribe, aren’t supposed to exist on their own.
The Tulalip Tribes are in the final stages of acquiring funding for a solar-powered microgrid on their reservation, which will help combat power outages. A microgrid is a self-contained energy source that can provide power to a certain area. If the bigger, main grid experiences a power outage, the microgrid would be able to power itself for an extended period of time, depending on the size of its energy storage system.
The main power grid is a system of transmission lines, such as power lines, that move electricity from the source to the consumer. A utility company like Puget Sound Energy or Snohomish Public Utility Department (SnoPUD) is responsible for distributing this power to homes and businesses.
In November of 2022, a wind storm downed power lines near the Tulalip Reservation, leaving them without power for four days. Power reliability on the reservation ranks among the lowest within the SnoPUD service territories, according to a 2023 Tulalip Microgrid Feasibility Study. The storm caused a majority of Snohomish County to lose power. Homes closer to urban centers with less tree density, however, often get power restored faster.
“The issue is that there are a lot of people on the reservation with health issues and they count on the lights being on to run equipment or to refrigerate medicines. So if you have it out for four days, that's a life-threatening problem,” Phil North, the climate adaptation coordinator for The Tulalip Tribes said.
Even for those not reliant on medical equipment, losing access to air conditioning or heat could cause an increased risk of hypothermia and heat stroke.
May 1, 2024- Tulalip, WA - The roof beams of the Tulalip Gathering Hall are designed to invoke the shape of a canoe. The space is multi-purpose for events and disaster management. // Photo by Nick Whitehead
The average number of weather-related power outages in the U.S. in a year has increased by roughly 78% since 2010. Every year, weather records are broken and severe storms become more frequent and intense.
The Tulalip’s microgrid will power the Tulalip Gathering Hall, which overlooks Tulalip Bay, the historic and cultural center of The Tulalip Tribes. The gathering hall was designed with a longhouse-style in mind, which was traditionally a multifamily living unit and space where tribal members gathered.
The building can hold up to 2,000 people for events like counsel meetings, pow wows, meals, weddings and funerals. It also serves as the main shelter in the case of an emergency and is equipped with a full commercial kitchen, showers, beds and conference rooms.
Although most tribal buildings on the reservation switch to diesel-powered generators in the case of a power outage, a solar microgrid with a battery-powered generator is more reliable because it doesn’t require fuel.
Once The Tulalip Tribes receive adequate funding, they plan to power their health clinic, senior center, administration building, early learning center and marina in phases using the microgrid.
The first part of the project involves installing additional rooftop solar panels onto the gathering hall. The battery-powered generator, which will store the solar energy acquired from the panels, is the most expensive part of the project.
“We're looking at one-megawatt batteries,” Steve Hinton, the microgrid's project manager, said. “We're probably talking somewhere in the neighborhood of two and a half million [dollars] for that battery.”
May 1, 2024 – Snohomish, WA- Battery cells are aligned in several stacks in a 1,400 kWh lithium-ion battery storage system at the Arlington Microgrid project. // Photo by Nick Whitehead
The Tulalip Tribes and SnoPUD will both benefit from the project.
When the microgrid isn’t using its stored power, SnoPUD can buy some of that energy from Tulalip, according to Jessica Spahr, senior project manager in energy storage and emerging technologies at SnoPUD. By selling this excess power, the Tulalip save on energy costs and SnoPud has more energy sources available to provide power during peak loads, or times that demand on their grid is high. This makes their grid more reliable.
“SnoPUD has not yet developed programs for integrating these in a county-wide manner,” Spahr wrote in an email. “But we are working with interested customers who have approached us about individual customer-owned microgrid systems, such as The Tulalip Tribes.”
The high cost of renewable energy has declined significantly over the years but its price tag is still a barrier for many communities. The Tulalip Tribes have received $2 million in grant money so far from the Washington State Department of Commerce through the Clean Energy Fund. Entities like cities, counties, tribes, institutions or nonprofits can apply for these grants to implement community-driven projects.
Community-driven solutions provide a way for local groups to adapt to their specific situations to create a more sustainable and dependable tomorrow. For many communities, adapting to extreme weather events is a matter of life or death and no longer a question of if but when.
The tribe plans to start construction in the spring of 2025. Tulalip tribal leadership has also chosen to take on the financial responsibility of long-term operation and maintenance of the grid because it aligns with both their short-term goal of emergency response and their overall goal of community resilience.
“This is one tiny step in many steps to get us where we want to be,” Cortez said. “Our history and our culture is [that] we take care of our neighbors, we take care of our visitors and our guests.”
A solar panel array in the sunlight at Snohomish Public Utilities District Arlington Microgrid Project on May 1, 2024.
Mason White is a senior Environmental Policy major, minoring in Environmental Justice. Her focus is creating policies that support collaboration and community-driven solutions.
Nick Whitehead is a senior environmental science major interested in fish ecology and wildlife conservation.