Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties, WA

A six megawatt wind farm in Washington generates revenues for a non-profit social services provider

Coastal Community Action Program (CCAP) is a non-profit social services group serving low-income communities in Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties in southwest Washigton. The organization has been working since 2000 to develop a renewable energy production model to help fund its efforts in subsidizing energy costs for the area's low-income residents.

After nearly 10 years, these efforts came to fruition with the expanded vision of the Coastal Energy Project, a six megawatt wind farm located on a rural site within the group's service area. The clean energy generated by the project will be sold directly to the public utility district, and the electricity revenue will provide a long-term reliable funding source for CCAP's many needed programs, including a Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

The project utilizes both New Markets Tax Credits and Renewable Energy Investment Tax Credits in its financing structure, and creates a model for using clean energy production to fund non-profit social service organizations that can be duplicated elsewhere in the country.

The four turbines will produce an estimated 13,500,000 kWh of clean energy annually, providing upwards of $500,000 a year in additional funding for Coastal Community Action Program.

Development Type: Six Megawatt wind farm

Project Timeline: Summer 2010

Project Partners: National Community Fund I, LLC; Coastal Community Action Program; Coastal Energy Project, LLC; US Bancorp Community Development Corporation; Shorebank Enterprise Cascadia

Total Project Cost: $18.81 million

NMTC Allocation: $15.18 million

Total Economic Impact: $30.2 million

Jobs: 155

Carbon Dioxide Offset: 291,340 Metric Tons over the life of the system

Click here for more community impacts information (PDF)