Humboldt County, California

Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid (RCAM) powering an airport + Coast Guard

Problem

Centralized energy systems leave rural communities vulnerable to outages, high costs, and fossil fuel dependence. Climate disruptions increase vulnerability.

Solution

The Redwood Coast Airport Microgrid at the California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport in McKinleyville is a front-of-the-meter, multi-customer microgrid: a 2.2 MW solar array DC-coupled to a 2.3 MW / 8.87 MWh Tesla battery, owned by the Redwood Coast Energy Authority on a PG&E-owned circuit section serving 19 customers including the airport and the Coast Guard air station, designed and integrated by the Schatz Energy Research Center with a $5 million CEC EPIC grant and a USDA loan. It reached CAISO commercial operation December 21, 2021, was cleared to island in May 2022, ran about 15 hours through the December 20, 2022 M6.4 earthquake, and over July 2022 to August 2025 served 63 of 74 islanding events (71.8 hours) with 11 failures covered by diesel backup.

Patterns used: Resilient Energy Microgrids

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