The Superior Community Center in Superior, Colorado is frequently buzzing with activity. On a beautiful sunny day, you’ll often find residents playing cards or children reading in the library. However, as wildfire risks and extreme heat are increasing, people have turned to the centrally located community center as a place of refuge.

During the 2021 Marshall Fire, the center became a hub for residents to gather, find a sense of community, and gain access to recovery resources. The Marshall Fire was the most destructive wildfire in state history, destroying over 1,000 homes and businesses in Boulder County and recovery efforts are still ongoing.

In July, C2ES hosted a collaborative workshop Envisioning Resilience Hubs and Microgrids in the North Front Range at the Superior Community Center. Nearly 30 participants, representing local governments, private companies, utilities, and community-based organizations, engaged in mapping exercises and collaborative discussions on what it will take to scale up these solutions.

The convening kicked off with keynote remarks on the importance of coordination and investment in both recovery and preparedness from the Colorado Governor’s Office of Climate Preparedness and Disaster Recovery, which was created after the Marshall Fire, followed by a panel on the current state of play and opportunities for resilience hubs and microgrids in the region.

As communities experience hazardous conditions more often, they need new assets that support local resilience

Public and private organizations, like Commún,Larimer County, Denver Climate Action, Sustainability & Resiliency, and The Big SandBox are engaging stakeholders to understand community needs and designing new programs and assets to support these needs, including resilience hubs and microgrids.

During the workshop, participants leveraged data and mapping tools created with partners at AT&T and IN-CORE, including maps illustrating social, wildfire, and heat risks to explore where resilience hubs and microgrids are most needed.

Most notably, the workshop uncovered broad interest from private and public stakeholders to develop a coordinated regional network to accelerate resilience hub and microgrid implementation. The interest in a regional network aligns with the state’s new roadmaps, tools, and funding streams, including from the Colorado Energy Office and Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

The federal government is playing a greater role in supporting resilience hubs & microgrids

Recognizing the potential community benefits, the federal government is providing informational resources to support these solutions, including the DHS Resilience Hub Finder and DOE Microgrid Installations Database.

Two new initiatives were announced in July to further support local implementation, raise awareness, and encourage collaboration and partnerships:

• EPA Community Change Grants: The Biden-Harris Administration announced more than $325 million for the first round of environmental and climate justice grants, with 7 funded projects supporting resilience hubs and 2 supporting microgrids.
• White House Climate Resilience Game Changers: “Resilience Hubs” and “Community-Integrated Microgrids” are included in this new and inspiring list of game changing, collaborative solutions poised for collaboration and private and philanthropic investment.

The path forward

This workshop is part of the Climate Resilient Communities Accelerator’s collaborative series to inform, connect, and empower key stakeholders that can lead or facilitate implementing wildfire and heat-ready resilience hubs and microgrids to serve communities and vulnerable neighborhoods in the North Front Range.

The day’s collaborative discussions will inform key components of a new, regionally tailored implementation toolkit that will include information about partnership models, federal resources, and considerations for taking a network approach.