Green Charge and REC Solar Announce Sonoma County s Largest Commercial Solar-Plus-Energy Storage Project

Green Charge and REC Solar today announced plans to build the largest commercial solar-plus-energy storage project in Sonoma County.

Green Charge’s one megawatt (MW) commercial energy storage system paired with REC Solar’s solar system will be installed at SOMO Village in Rohnert Park, Calif. The combined solar-plus-storage system is expected to deliver more than $160,000 savings to SOMO Village in the first year and more than $1.8 million over the first 10 years of operations.

SOMO Village is a mixed-use development with approximately 600,000 sf of commercial space with 50 businesses employing around 1,000 people. The property consumes nearly six MW of energy annually and redevelopment plans include a host of shops, apartments, homes and neighborhoods. SOMO Village currently has existing solar systems onsite, which are now expanded to bring the total to 16,000 solar panels at the 200-acre campus, creating Sonoma County’s largest solar-plus-storage project.

SOMO Village was the first development in North America to be named a “One Planet Community” by Bioregional, an organization that works with partners to champion a better, more sustainable way to live, work and do business. Bioregional’s One Planet Living framework uses ecological and carbon footprinting as its primary guiding principles. The principles are based on ten criteria, including zero carbon emissions.

“SOMO Village is a leader in renewable energy adoption,” said Alan Russo, senior vice president of sales and marketing at REC Solar. “We are proud to be their energy partner and to work alongside the Green Charge team to maximize the impact of their solar investment.”

Commercial and industrial organizations such as SOMO Village are increasingly adding energy storage to decrease their dependence on a centralized electrical grid and to augment the economic benefits of their solar systems. Rocky Mountain Institute found that the increase in solar photovoltaic (PV) self-consumption due to the addition of energy storage has a value of about $25 per kilowatt-year and that demand charge reduction could be worth as much as $200 per kilowatt-year. With solar-plus-storage, businesses can consume all the solar power they produce rather than feeding it back to the grid. This lowers demand charges, offsets energy purchases and reduces utility bills.

“Solar PV has long been seen as an environmentally responsible energy choice, but many companies now deploy solar with energy storage because it is also a smart business choice,” said Vic Shao, CEO of Green Charge. “With a combined solar and storage system, the potential savings and return on investment can be much greater than each can provide on a standalone basis.”