LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Renewable energy and grid solutions provider Swell Energy Inc. (Swell) today announced a contract with Redwood Coast Energy Authority (RCEA) to develop the Community Grid Program designed to provide additional capacity and resource adequacy to Humboldt County. Swell’s Distributed Power Plant (DPP) effort with RCEA applies an innovative and collaborative approach to establish up to 45 MWh of behind-the-meter solar powered energy storage, bringing essential power reliability to a region hard hit by wildfires and public safety power shutoffs in recent years.
To quickly build a solar and energy storage customer base in the region, Swell is expanding its partnership with GRID Alternatives and leveraging all government, utility, and financial programs available to bring down customer costs and enroll both new and existing systems into the Community Grid Program.
Residential, commercial, and industrial solar+storage sites located at a customer’s site can be eligible to participate in RCEA’s Community Grid Program. Swell’s success delivering zero cost energy storage to communities most in need in 2020—including low income and medically vulnerable customers as well as native tribes—through California’s Self Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) enables Swell to offer additional monetary incentives to SGIP customers in the RCEA territory. Humboldt county energy users that want the benefits of renewable power reliability and bill savings while simultaneously supporting energy resilience in their community can sign up to participate.
Swell partners with a diverse group of utilities and organizations in key markets to rapidly deploy and aggregate distributed energy resources. In other areas of California, Swell is working with Prosper Sustainably, Direct Relief, Sierra Club chapters, Tribal Governments, Independent Living Resource Center Inc., and other groups to promote solar and storage adoption and a carbon neutral energy future. The RCEA project fits into the utility's broader strategic plan, which includes deploying renewable customer-sited distributed energy and storage resources.
“RCEA is excited to be working with Swell and GRID to bring state and local incentives for energy storage to Humboldt County agencies, homes, and businesses,” said Matthew Marshall, Executive Director of RCEA. “The battery storage systems installed under this program can provide customer bill savings and grid benefits during normal daily operations but will also serve critical energy needs during power outages.”
“By teaming up with RCEA on the development of a regional DPP, we are able to bring the core benefits of batteries and incremental value to local residents and businesses,” said Suleman Khan, CEO of Swell Energy. “We’re facilitating energy resilience among vulnerable regions and communities and expanding the impact of renewable energy resources to the local grid—affording homeowners and small commercial customers additional benefits for participating in grid services programs, while bringing greater energy reliability and environmental benefits to the broader region.”
Since 2019, Swell Energy and GRID Alternatives have collaborated throughout California to deliver energy security through residential and commercial energy storage projects to communities in need and will now bring these capabilities to the RCEA service territory. Moreover, the partnership with GRID Alternatives includes workforce development programs that teach energy service trades, like solar installation, to community members to empower youth and build skill sets in a growing industry.
“Battery storage technology and solar job training in underserved communities creates resiliency in the face of climate-related disasters and shut-offs,” says Paul Cleary, Executive Director of GRID San Diego. “GRID Alternatives is excited to partner with Swell Energy to bring these new technologies and workforce programs to tribal and other environmental justice communities.”
To learn more about how you can take advantage of energy storage incentives and make your home or business resilient against power shut-offs, visit www.swellenergy.com/rcea. To find out how your organization can partner with Swell Energy to help deploy these programs, visit www.swellenergy.com/partners.
About Swell Energy Inc.
Swell Energy is creating a greater grid for the greater good. The energy management and smart grid solutions provider is accelerating the mass adoption of distributed clean energy technologies by making it easy for consumers to take control of their energy use, achieve energy security, and save costs. Swell Energy provides homeowners and businesses with financing and educational resources, while partnering with trusted local solar and solar+storage companies for seamless, high-quality product installations. By creating a critical mass of dynamic and responsive clean energy resources within utility service areas across the United States, Swell Energy is also delivering resilient virtual power plant networks and grid-balancing services to utilities, which are fundamental to our future, carbon-free, distributed renewable energy system. Learn more at www.swellenergy.com.
About GRID Alternatives
GRID Alternatives is a national leader in making clean, affordable solar power and solar jobs accessible to economic and environmental justice communities. Using a unique, people-first model, GRID develops and implements solar projects that serve qualifying households and affordable housing providers, while providing hands-on job training and connections to clean mobility and battery storage incentive programs. GRID has installed solar for more than 20,500 families to-date and helped households and housing providers save $532 million in lifetime electricity costs, while training over 45,000 people. GRID Alternatives has eight regional offices and affiliates serving California, Colorado, the mid-Atlantic region, and Tribal communities nationwide, and serves communities in Nicaragua, Nepal and Mexico. For more information, visit www.gridalternatives.org.
About RCEA
The Redwood Coast Energy Authority is a local government joint powers agency whose members include the County of Humboldt, all local cities, and the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. The Energy Authority’s purpose is to develop and implement sustainable energy initiatives that reduce energy demand, increase energy efficiency, and advance the use of clean, efficient and renewable resources available in the region. For more information, visit www.redwoodenergy.org.
