Building for the Future, Part III: Solar + Storage
Battery energy storage: maximizing impact and deepening grid and community resilience.
Our 1,188 kW solar + storage project hosted by The Kingsbury Club in Medfield, MA. This project will generate $3.1 million in lifetime energy savings for the town of Medfield, who is purchasing the power generated, while removing 27,000 tons of carbon from the atmosphere over its lifetime.
Over the last nine years, Sunwealth has accumulated expertise in developing and financing impactful community-based solar projects while delivering electricity savings, green jobs, and emissions reductions to communities across the country. Accelerating the clean energy transition and uplifting underserved communities requires Sunwealth to reject complacency. It requires scaling our impact through continuous learning, innovation, and advocacy.
In our new multi-part blog series, “Building for the Future,” we are highlighting the way Sunwealth is growing our impact through harnessing innovative climate-focused technologies, policy, and partnerships. In our third installment, we explain solar plus storage projects, Sunwealth’s utilization of these systems, and why they are crucial for transitioning to a robust clean energy economy.
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Part III: Solar + Storage
In our second segment of “Building for the Future,” we discussed VPPs: a method of aggregating clean energy resources to maximize grid reliability, sustainability, and efficiency. In this segment, we are highlighting a clean energy system that often comprises a VPP: solar plus storage projects. This type of system combines two distributed energy resources (DERs): a solar array and a battery energy storage system (BESS), which helps to optimize the effectiveness of clean energy generation and utilization while also bolstering the resilience of the electricity grid. But how, exactly?
A graphic from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff Report on Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), depicting the flow of energy and funds between a residential battery system, VPP, and the utility. Check out page 27 of the report for further explanation.
A solar project generates power by transforming sunlight into electricity. And while solar projects are still able to operate at a submaximal capacity on a cloudy day, weather conditions don’t always match up with variances in electricity demand. Periods of high demand, when supply is lacking, strain the electricity grid, and situations of high supply and low demand create excess energy. This is where battery storage comes in. A battery connects to a solar array and stores excess energy generated by the panels. When energy is needed and the solar panels can’t immediately meet the full demand – at night, or during a power outage – that energy can be used from the battery. Grid-scale batteries can also send this energy out to the electricity grid — and be compensated for it — during periods of high demand. This reduces the spike of peak demand, increasing the reliability and flexibility of the grid. This process also generates meaningful energy savings, because the battery’s owner is compensated for energy sent back to the grid, and also benefits from a lower cost of battery-stored energy compared to energy from the grid during a high-demand period.
Construction in progress at 2 Ice House Road.
As an example of this technology at work, we can look to our new project at 2 Ice House Road in Medfield, MA. It is Medfield’s first solar plus storage project, developed in partnership with Boston Solar and Bright Community Capital. The project totals 1,188 kW and is complemented by 2,230 kW hours’ worth of battery storage. The Kingsbury Club, a health and fitness club, is hosting the project and selling 100% of the power produced to the town of Medfield, who will receive $3.1 million in lifetime energy savings. It will reduce almost 27,000 metric tons of carbon over its lifetime, while creating 41 lifetime solar job years.
The battery storage system at 2 Ice House Road.
Our first solar plus storage project was developed at the River Valley Co-op in Easthampton, MA, which is also the first zero-net energy grocery store in the Northeast. Check out our blog to learn more about the project. We continue to actively seek out these innovative solar systems – five Sunwealth solar plus storage projects are currently in construction and ten sit at earlier stages of our project pipeline.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) predicts that by 2025, one in every three new solar systems will be paired with storage. It’s a trend that makes sense – it bolsters the effectiveness and impact of solar energy generation and clears a path towards a resilient net-zero economy by enabling more solar and other clean energy integration into the grid. At Sunwealth, we are ambitiously working towards a 100% renewable economy through proactive learning and technological innovation. We’re thrilled to be rapidly growing our portfolio of solar plus storage projects and contributing to building robust, resilient solar markets across the country.
Interested in learning more about partnering with Sunwealth?