June 20, 2013: Project Aims to Optimize Community-Scale Solar
Solar Forecasting and Energy Management to Improve Efficiency
LIVERMORE, Calif. — The California Energy Commission awarded $1.7 million to a partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Cool Earth Solar Inc. (CES) to conduct a community-scale renewable energy integration demonstration project at the Livermore Valley Open Campus in California. CES is the prime awardee and is contributing an additional $1 million in matching funds to the CEC amount, while LLNL will provide advanced research and development support for the effort.
The project will test and demonstrate a model for how communities can optimize their use of solar energy by forecasting their solar generation and using energy management tools to adapt to that forecast. The net result will be a community that is able to reduce its total electricity consumption and rely more on clean, locally available renewable resources.