Wednesday, April 9, 2025 FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT BY OPALCO San Juan County is updating the County Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan) this year. The Comp Plan is an important guiding document for managing land use and infrastructure in a coordinated and sustainable way. The Comp Plan goals and policies can help local organizations prepare and…
Thursday, March 27, 2025 FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT BY OPALCO OPALCO filed a Draft License Application with the Federal Regulatory Commission (FERC) today for a 10-year pilot project license for OPALCO’s proposed Rosario Strait Tidal Energy Project. In June 2024, OPALCO was awarded a grant by the Department of Energy to file this application and…
Wednesday, March 12, 2025by Jeff Noedelvideo by Jeremy Tyler A SanJuans.Today VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE DISCLOSURE: This program is a co-production of SanJuans.Today and OPALCO, Orcas Power and Light Cooperative, a non-profit, member-owned co-op providing energy services to San Juan County since 1937. OPALCO provided a portion of the funds to produce this program,…
How will OPALCO keep up with local demand for reliable energy? Monday, February 24, 2025by Jeff NoedelVideo by Jeremy Tyler DISCLOSURE: This program is a co-production of SanJuans.Today and OPALCO, Orcas Power and Light Cooperative, a non-profit, member-owned co-op providing energy services to San Juan County since 1937. OPALCO provided a portion of the funds to produce this…
What’s our energy future going to be? Tuesday, February 18, 2025 FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT BY OPALCO The OPALCO team attended and presented at the San Juan County Council meeting on February 10th. The team outlined the dire situation that the regional power supply is facing. Our shrinking regional power supply and increasing demand is…
Friday, February 7, 2025FROM THE WASHINGTON STATE STANDARDby Jake Goldstein-Street Washington was in line to receive $71 million for chargers along I-5 and other roads. But the U.S. Department of Transportation says it will revamp the program. WASHINGTON STATE STANDARD, Olympia–The Trump administration on Thursday told states it was blocking money for electric vehicle chargers,…
Wednesday, February 5, 2025FROM THE WASHINGTON STATE STANDARDby Jake Goldstein-Street WASHINGTON STATE STANDARD, Olympia–Washington was locked out of about $150 million in federal funding for solar projects focused on low-income communities last week as the Trump administration paused clean energy grants. Last April, the federal Environmental Protection Agency awarded $7 billion to 60 recipients, including $156 million…
Wednesday, December 11, 2024 FOLLOWING IS A STATEMENT BY SAN JUAN COUNTY GOVERNMENT San Juan County’s Department of Community Development (DCD) is postponing the public hearing examiner meeting (previously scheduled for Dec. 18) for OPALCO’s Bailer Hill micro-grid and battery installation project while waiting for additional information. The future hearing examiner meeting date is to…
Tuesday, December 3, 2024 Community internet television and radio for the San Juans gained some strength in the past two days, as $1,602 more in donations have now arrived. That brings the recent total to $1,859. And the Mary See Foundation match has instantly turned that into $3,718! The Mary See Foundation leaders took a…
Saturday, November 30, 2024by Jeff Noedel In January, OPALCO announced details for an intended 2.7 megawatt solar array paired with 1 MW of battery storage on 19 acres on Bailer Hill at Douglas Road on San Juan Island. The project has been in planning since 2021, about the time the rural electric cooperative won a…
A CNL2 VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGEA VIEWER COMMENT IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE Friday, July 12, 2024 at 4:06 a.m.Video Directed by Jeremy Tyler Part 2 of the 3-part interview of San Juan County Council Representative Cindy Wolf begins with a discussion of today’s political climate. And she shares…
Following is a statement from Orcas Power and Light Cooperative (OPALCO) released Friday, June 14, 2024: Earlier this year OPALCO requested changes to the Comprehensive Plan regarding land use designations and now those changes are being reviewed by the San Juan County Planning Commission. Members can submit comments to the Planning Commission regarding OPALCO’s requests….
A CNL2 VIDEO IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE. In an exclusive report published recently in the Salish Current, reporter Toby Cooper makes a deep dive into a project Orcas Power & Light Cooperative (OPALCO) is exploring in which a football field-sized machine would be tethered to the sea floor at a point between…
