Celebrating Energy Savings At Los Altos H.S. Yup $86K Worth!
19 Jun 2016 |
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Sybil Cramer being interviewed for Los Altos High School’s school paper, The Talon.
The utility of the future is here.
A crowd of supporters heard those words from Richard Adams, Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship with the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), at the June 8 celebration of the one year anniversary for the Battery Storage and EV Charging System on the Los Altos High School campus. “You are sitting under it,” he said, referring to the photovoltaic panels in the parking lot and pointing to the nearby charging stations and battery storage facility. “This is the look of local, distributed energy.”
Sybil Cramer led the effort to get charging and battery storage on campus. She saw an opportunity to get a system installed by Green Charge Networks, at no cost to the school district, and school officials took notice.
As Mike Mathiesen, Associate Superintendent of Business Services put it, “We are in the business of education, but we like to be on the leading edge, and if we can save money on our energy costs, we’ll do it.” And save they did, $86,000 in utility electric bills this past year!
Santa Clara-based Green Charge Networks, the largest provider of commercial energy storage in the US, was recently acquired by ENGIE, the largest independent power producer and supplier of energy efficiency in the world. Mark Triplett, COO, Green Charge Networks, said, “This battery storage pilot program was just an idea two years ago.” It has now shown that energy storage can effectively smooth variations in energy supply and demand. PG&E is watching closely. This is important as we move to more and more renewable energy content. For the schools it’s simple, it runs in the background offering inspiration while saving money. That’s a nice combination.
Thank you Sybil for making this happen!
Gary Hedden
Energy Lead, GTLA
