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Member Highlight: Thurston County

Thurston County government serves an active, and conservation-minded population from Washington state’s capital city of Olympia, on the South Puget Sound about an hour south of Seattle on the Interstate 5 corridor.


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The community is made up of the unincorporated areas, small cities and farm communities within county boundaries.  


As a proud member of Western Washington Clean Cities, the county has been steadily reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by transitioning its fleet operations to cleaner fuels since its first two Nissan LEAF purchases in 2011.


Although those battery-electric vehicles are no longer in service, the county’s fleet now includes five electric vehicles, four plug-in hybrid EVs, and 11 AutoGas light-duty trucks - all supported by nine public and fleet-only charging stations installed at county buildings -  with more EVs and charging stations to come. All EVs are issued with commercial RFID tags to enable use of public and privately-owned infrastructure to extend the county’s EV ranges beyond our local area.   


We also participate in the Washington State fuel contract and switched our heavy-duty fleet to renewable diesel (R99). Since August 2023, the county purchased more than 155,000 gallons of renewable diesel (R99) for use in our heavy-duty county vehicles. We also installed an AutoGas filling station at our Public Works site to serve our light-duty EV truck fleet. Together, these actions are significantly cutting our carbon footprint. 


In addition to our fleet initiatives, the county is engaging with projects that encourage the local economy toward green energy and strengthen collaboration between industry and the county.  


Most recently, the county entered talks to lease 25 acres at its landfill to local energy provider, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) for a utility-scale solar array to expand public EV charging. The proposed PSE project, if approved, could begin in 2026. 


Building Clean Energy Capacity Beyond the Fleet  

  • The county eliminated fossil-fuel use for 114 families in our community by partnering with nearby cities on the “Energize Thurston” heat-pump group purchase program. To date 219 households - 170 of them low- to moderate-income- installed high-efficiency electric heating and water-heating systems. 

  • Using a $1.39 million clean energy grant from the Washington State Dept. of Commerce, the county plans to add a major solar-and-battery energy storage system at its Public Health & Social Services headquarters building in 2026. The county has conducted feasibility studies for similar systems at five of its other buildings as well.  

  • The county’s long-range community growth plan - Thurston 2045 - proposes new permitting standards for commercial solar and battery energy storage systems that, if adopted, will streamline approval processes starting in 2026 for projects that strengthen grid resilience  

  • The county is participating in the innovative C-PACER financing program to enable commercial property owners to fund clean-energy and resiliency upgrades, with the first $17 million project already closed. 

  • In September 2023, Thurston County received “SolSmart Silver” designation for encouraging the growth of clean, affordable solar energy at the local level by incentivizing solar by not requiring county-level permits for residential rooftop solar projects, reviewing zoning codes for solar best practices and potential barriers, training permitting staff, having solar panels on its Public Works building, and creating a dedicated solar web page. The County is one of only 90 of 3,000+ U.S. counties with this designation. SolSmart is a program of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council and the International City/County Management Association, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office. 

 

 

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