Responding to wildfire-related power outages, a California school district has hired CleanSpark to study the feasibility of building a microgrid.
CleanSpark is working with the Shoreline Unified School District north of San Francisco. If approved, the microgrid will use solar energy, energy storage and back-up generation to meet the district’s energy needs and provide back-up power to surrounding communities during emergencies, according to Salt Lake City-based technology company.
Other school districts in California also are turning to microgrids, among them the Sonoma Valley Unified School District and the Santa Barbara Unified School District, as the state grapples with what Pacific Gas & Electric has warned could be a decade-long threat of wild-fire related shutoffs.
CleanSpark expects to give the district the results of the feasibility study’s first phase in March. The study, to be conducted at CleanSpark’s expense, will see if a microgrid can be built at no net cost to the district while being financially beneficial to CleanSpark, according to a memo to the school district’s board.
“The presence of microgrids would protect our schools from power outages, planned or otherwise,” the memo said. “Additionally, we would be able to employ renewable energy in our schools, which would have clear large-scale benefit.”
Seeking 5% energy use reduction
Pacific Gas & Electric, and other investor-owned utilities in California, last year cut off power to their customers in a series of planned outages called public safety power shutoffs. The outages were instituted during times of high wildfire risk.
The Shoreline school district covers about 450 square miles in western Marin and Sonoma counties. It has five elementary schools and a high school.
CleanSpark will first focus on the feasibility of creating a microgrid for the Tomales High School. The assessment will look to see if a microgrid could reduce electricity use at the school by 5%, according to a draft agreement, which was approved by the school board. It will also see if more than half of the school’s electricity could come from onsite resources while also supplying emergency power.
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