Scaling Solar+ for Small and Medium Commercial Buildings
Accelerating adoption of solar+storage in small- and medium-sized commercial buildings.
Cal Poly Humboldt Sponsored Programs Foundation
Recipient
Arcata, CA
Recipient Location
2nd
Senate District
2nd
Assembly District
$1,500,000
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
The convenience store microgrid at Blue Lake Rancheria successfully demonstrated its load-shedding and islanding capabilities while responding to California's grid needs in the September 2020 fire season. Schatz Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University conducted capability and performance testing of the solar plus storage system from August to September 2020, and as of December 2021, the research team's final report is under review for publication. The final meeting for this agreement is scheduled for December 16, 2021.
The Issue
Although many distributed energy resources (DERs) are being designed to power and support the fast-changing electric grid, these DERs are often procured and operated separately. Without coordination between them, there are missed opportunities to reduce the soft costs of deployment and better support bulk power and distribution system operations. Integration technology elements appropriate for small-to-medium sized commercial buildings (SMB) are not commercially available, making it too costly to effectively deploy smart, integrated DERs.
Project Innovation
This project is developing standardized components for a Solar+ system designed specifically for the SMB sector. The research team is designing, implementing, operating, and evaluating a Solar+ system in a pilot scale application at a convenience store. The project is designed to innovate across three key priority areas necessary for technology scale-up: hardware design guidelines, integration software, and site targeting. Filling these knowledge gaps will help move the deployment of Solar+ technologies forward, thereby bringing substantial benefit to individual building owners, as well as opening opportunities to provide service to the broader distribution and bulk power systems. This project focuses on the convenience store/fueling station SMB sector, but lessons learned and products developed can be transferred to other SMB sectors.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
This project is integrating DERs, including energy storage, and controllable loads to increase the value of Solar+ systems in the SMB sector. Optimized relative sizing of batteries to PV and flexible operations from model-predictive control (MPC)-enabled building automation are demonstrating how investment in an integrated system can save costs and create efficiency compared to standalone PV and storage. The project is developing and demonstrating an open-source MPC algorithm. Improved hardware-software interfaces integrate the solar PV system with localized energy storage and MPC-improved load control systems. This allows SMB owners to optimize the benefits of distributed solar and approach net-zero energy buildings while also supporting the larger grid power system.
Affordability
This project reduced onsite energy demands and peak loads, resulting in customer bill savings. The project developed hardware design guidelines and integration software to help reduce costs of future installations.
Environmental Sustainability
Significant DER capacity could be deployed through the framework and systems being developed under this project. Gas stations and convenience stores are strategic locations for installing DERs to reduce the state's emissions.
Reliability
This project expanded the ability to provide power for critical services in times of emergency when the utility grid is down. Findings will also lead to improved ability for smart deployment of similar systems across the state.
Key Project Members
Peter Alstone
Jim Zoellick
Richard Brown
Subrecipients
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Serraga Energy, LLC at Blue Lake Rancheria
Robert Colburn Electric Inc
McKeever Energy & Electric
Match Partners
Cal Poly Humboldt Sponsored Programs Foundation
Tesla Motors, Inc.
Serraga Energy, LLC at Blue Lake Rancheria
