Camano Center Microgrid
Camano Island, WA · Camano Senior Services Association · Operational since 2025
45 kW DC solar expansion (9.6kW existing) · 125 kW / 220 kWh storage • grant funded
Purpose
The Camano Center is a 501(c)(3) run by the Camano Senior Services Association, founded in 1972 and rebuilt in 2000 as a 10,000-square-foot senior and community center. Each year, its kitchen prepares tens of thousands of meals and distributes them through Meals on Wheels and other meal programs; for some Island County residents aged 60 and over, this is what stands between them and a trip off the island.
The Center also hosts the Camano Preparedness Group, which works with Camano Island Fire and Rescue and Island County Emergency Management on the risk the island actually plans around: being cut off from the mainland for weeks by severe weather, ice, or an earthquake.
The microgrid lets the building keep running through seasonal outages, ensuring its services for aging or vulnerable populations can continue uninterrupted. In a disaster, the center can now serve as a mass care facility.
Challenges
Sulis sequenced the work around the Center's roof replacement. The original composition shingles from the 2000 construction were near the end of their life, so the array could not go on until the roof had been replaced with standing seam metal. Installation then ran across four roof planes at a 7:12 pitch, clamped to the seams rather than penetrating them.
Fire Mountain Solar, which installed the Center's original 9.6 kW array in 2014, returned to remove and reinstall it around the re-roof. Sulis then combined that system with the new one so both feed a single point of common coupling.
The building also needed a new service entrance: the existing main distribution panel was reassigned as a subpanel, and a new panel was installed to serve the microgrid. Sulis worked with the Center to position the battery enclosure to keep it clear of the garden and the east-side grounds used for outdoor events. It is the first behind-the-meter microgrid in Snohomish County PUD's territory.
