Solar+storage cuts Vermont utility grid charge by $200,000

A recently completed solar+storage project at Green Mountain Power’s Stafford Hill Solar Farm project shaved enough August peak energy use that Green Mountain Power is saving $200,000 from its annual bill from the New England grid operator.

November 23, 2016 Charles W. Thurston

The storage component of the 2 MW/ 3.4 MWh project in Rutland, VT., was provided by Dynapower, based in Burlington. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the Stafford Hill Solar Farm is the first project to establish a micro-grid powered solely by solar and battery back-up, with no other fuel source.

With 7,700 solar panels situated on 15 acres of land, the farm can power about 2,000 homes during full sun, or 365 homes year-round. The battery storage permits the disconnection of an entire circuit from the grid in an emergency to provide critical power for an emergency shelter at Rutland High School.

The Stafford Hill Solar Farm is sited at the closed Rutland City landfill, and is the first known solar storage project in the country to repurpose brownfield land once used to bury waste for the siting of renewable energy.

Stafford Hill is an important step in the partnership to establish Rutland as the Energy City of the Future, where Green Mountain Power pilots new technology to improve people’s lives before spreading initiatives statewide. GMP is the first utility in the world to get a B Corp certification, meeting rigorous social, environmental, accountability and transparency standards.

“This project represents the kind of public-private partnership that has been so important to Rutland’s ongoing revitalization,” Mayor Chris Louras said recently.

Dynapower is a global leader in the design and manufacture of power conversion equipment including high-power rectifiers, energy storage inverters, microgrid control systems and transformers. Dynapower provides power electronics solutions for energy storage, industrial, mining, military, and research applications.

With more than 53 years of experience providing power electronics solutions to a global customer base, Dynapower’s product range includes discrete power electronics and fully integrated systems ranging from 100 kilowatts to 36 megawatts. Dynapower has more than 300 MW of the company’s high reliability, energy storage inverters deployed worldwide.

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