Santa Rosa Junior College Goes Solar + Storage to Achieve Sustainability Goals
More than a century old, Santa Rosa Junior College is part of the California Community Colleges System, the largest system of higher education in the U.S. SRJC’s mission includes serving California’s low-income and underrepresented student populations, providing them with the best possible services in the highest-quality environment at the lowest cost. To do this, SRJC is always looking for sustainable and innovative ways to reduce operating costs, so it can put more funds into student programs.
- Location
- Santa Rosa, CA
- Facility Type
- College Campus
- Commercial Operation Date
- June 2019
- Energy Storage System Size
- 1.3MW plus 2.6MW solar PV
- Solutions
- Solar Plus Storage, Utility Bill Optimization, Demand Response, Backup Power, Sustainability
“As a large community college that believes strongly in sustainability, SRJC wants to maximize the value of our solar energy system with energy storage. This will cut our energy costs even further to improve our economics, benefit our students, and use taxpayer dollars as wisely as possible.”
Challenge
By 2030, SRJC plans to achieve carbon neutrality across all sites, and zero net energy across all buildings at all sites. And facing power shutdowns during Northern California’s fire season, the college needed a way to minimize any disruptions.
Solution
SRJC installed a 2.6MW solar carport and 1.3MW energy storage system. Stem’s Athena software calculates SRJC’s rate structure, energy consumption, and other factors to optimize automatic deployment of stored energy, reducing grid demand and shielding the college from unnecessary costs
Results
The solar plus storage system allows the campus to provide up to 35 percent of its own electricity via clean, onsite renewable generation. Stem’s solution also enables SRJC to participate in demand response programs and allows essential buildings to operate independently of the local grid in an emergency.