Rincon Long Duration Energy Storage Solar Microgrid
Demonstrates a long-duration flow battery within a commercial microgrid
Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians
Recipient
Valley Center, CA
Recipient Location
40th
Senate District
75th
Assembly District
$158,668
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The microgrid design is 90 percent complete. The SDG&E interconnection application was submitted, and the utility completed its supplemental review. Third-party financing has been secured. Processes to secure a right-of-way easement and temporary access permit are in progress. The long-duration energy storage system has been manufactured and awaits shipment to the project site. Other procurement and site mobilization activities are proceeding.
The Issue
Non-lithium energy storage technologies have faced several barriers to adoption by California utility customers. Flow batteries have suffered from limitations affecting scale, efficiency, cost, and ability to quickly ramp up to support customers in an outage. As a result, customers and financiers have not considered flow batteries to be sufficiently mature for widespread adoption.
Project Innovation
This project will demonstrate a vanadium redox flow battery system to provide 400kW of load for at least 10 hours. The energy storage system will be interconnected with solar PV to create a microgrid that will provide resiliency and cost savings for a commercial building, which is also used as an emergency public shelter.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
By demonstrating the integration of vanadium redox flow batteries as a long-duration energy storage system in a commercial microgrid, the project will support the understanding of how the performance characteristics of flow batteries can support a microgrid. Commercializing flow batteries as long-duration energy storage systems will enable the technology to contribute to meeting California's clean energy goals for resiliency, sustainability, cost savings, and safety.
Affordability
The project will provide onsite distributed renewable energy resources and energy storage capacity for load shifting to reduce customer electricity costs over the project’s 25-year lifetime.
Energy Security
The project will increase tribal energy security and self-reliance by providing onsite renewable generation and energy storage resource that displace consumption of imported electricity and standby diesel generation fuel. The project will also protect customer loads from public safety power shutoffs and other long-duration outage events.
Environmental Sustainability
Microgrid with solar generation and long-duration energy storage will reduce the Rincon community’s greenhouse gas footprint and reduce local criteria pollutants attributable to diesel combustion of backup generators.
Key Project Members
Josh Simmons
Robert Clark
Ben Peters
Michael Burr
Dustin Jolley
Colin Boone
Subrecipients
Prosper Sustainably, LLC
OurEnergy LLC
Match Partners
Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians
