Santa Cruz, CA

Sandbar Solar And Electric

Sandbar Solar’s new office facility was built on an empty lot within the Santa Cruz, CA city limits. Instead of paying the high costs of an interconnection study with the local utility, the owner decided the new building would instead be powered entirely from an off-grid microgrid.

Energy Resource Capacity
59 kW
60 kW
154 kWh
60 kW

The microgrid was designed around the requirements of the local jurisdiction as well as the California air resource board, which limited the backup natural gas generator operating hours to less than 500 per year. Ageto performed system analysis to determine the optimal system and generator size, as well as providing the necessary data required during the permitting process.

ARC provides the primary user interface, real-time controls, and system monitoring to maximize the renewable energy usage while utilizing the backup generator as necessary. Being near a residential area, the owner wanted to prevent the generator from running overnight. Ageto implemented an overnight ‘quiet hours’ function wherein ARC proactively runs the generator in the evening to charge the batteries if the available capacity is insufficient to carry the facility load overnight. ARC has been performing exceptionally since commissioning and is providing cleaner, cheaper, and more reliable power than the local utility.

Ideal Power 30C3 Inverter (2)
30 kW
Blue Planet LX HV Battery (1)
64 kWh
Avalon AFB2 Flow Battery (3)
10 kW/30 kWh
Solar PV Array (1)
38 kW
Solar PV Array (1)
21 kW
Basler DGC 2020 Natural Gas Generator (1)
60 kW
SEL-547 Protective Relay (1)

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