Dive Brief:
- The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is leading a project to construct nine homes in California to be energy neutral by pairing solar production with battery storage.
- SunEdison was tapped to supply the energy storage system, and will monitor and control the system to optimize energy savings and load profile.
- The project is being supported by the California Public Utilities Commission, national homebuilder Meritage Homes and Southern California Edison.
Dive Insight:
By 2020, all new homes in California are supposed to be net-zero for energy use. Same goes for commercial buildings by 2030, which makes EPRI's project potentially critical for the state. Construction has already begun, and the first home is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
"We're pioneering solutions that will help Californians prepare for the future of the grid, where homes and businesses will be generating their own electricity on a much greater scale than we're seeing today," Tim Derrick, SunEdison's general manager of advanced solutions, said in a statement. "By installing SunEdison's advanced battery systems on these net-zero energy homes, we're able to store solar-generated electricity and better manage the interactions of that electricity with the grid."
The project aims to how net-zero energy homes that generate and store their own energy impact the local electricity grid. SunEdison designed the battery system, partnering with Eguana Tech, LG Chem and Geli for this project.
"We're using advanced controls and energy storage to manage these mini, distributed power plants that are expected to play a much larger role in the grid of the future," said EPRI project lead Ram Narayanamurthy.
The number of net-zero energy homes, or ZNE homes, has doubled between 2012 and 2014, according to the the New Buildings Institute, which tracks this industry trend. California's climate and energy efficiency policies positioned the state to become the leader in constructing ZNE dwellings. Even so, some major challenges for the trend includes proving that it's cost-competitive compaired to less-efficient homes.