Oregon city receiving $940K grant for Solar-Storage Microgrid to serve Emergency functions
The city of Ashland, Oregon will have new microgrid serving municipal police and utility functions.
The planned project will include a 75-kW elevated dual-axis solar power system and a lithium-ion battery system. Stracker Solar is designer on the Ashland microgrid.
The project will be funded by a $940,000 award from the Oregon Department of Energy. The award should pay 100 percent of the costs.
The solar and battery microgrid will be built at the Ashland City Service Center where the police and electric departments, vehicle fueling and charging stations are located.
"The City of Ashland is gratified to be part of this forward-thinking project which will add resilience to our city's emergency response”, says Julie Akins, Mayor of Ashland, in the Stracker press release. “We congratulate Stracker Solar on the successful culmination of their hard work to move this forward with the Department of Energy. We look forward to this partnership and future projects with an eye toward sustainable development and resilience."
The solar panels provided by Ashland-based Stracker Solar are expected to produce about 170,000 kWh of electricity per year, supplying the municipal functions for the electric department and Ashland Fiber Network building.
Once operational it also could deliver power for city vehicles even in the event of a grid outage.