Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/990287
J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 1 8 www.resourceworld.com 59 GREEN TECHNOLOGIES Force is committed to incorporating mod- ern, clean energy technology like solar to provide diverse energy sources for our warfighter," said Dan Soto, Air Force Civil Engineer Center Rates and Renewables Division Chief. "With support on this project from solar technology innovator SunPower, we're improving energy resil - iency, optimizing demand, and assuring supply at Vandenberg over the long term." "Our government customers clearly understand the environmental and economic value in transitioning from tra- ditional to renewable energy sources, and SunPower is pleased to support the US Air Force progress with our high-performing solar technology," said Nam Nguyen, SunPower Executive Vice President, Commercial Solar. "With a SunPower sys- tem designed to cost-effectively maximize power generation, Vandenberg can expect to see energy savings for decades." The project features SunPower ® Oasis® power plant technology which is a fully- integrated, modular solar power block system engineered for rapid deployment and land use optimization. The Vandenberg system is generating solar electricity from land that has gone unused for over a decade and is a former Air Force housing site. The system is expected to provide 54,500 MW hours of energy annually – equivalent to offsetting carbon dioxide emissions from 8,600 cars for one year according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. On March 1, 2018, SunPower intro - duced Helix™ Storage, a new solution that combines energy storage with intel- ligent software to manage electricity costs for commercial solar customers in the United States. An increase in manufac- turing capacity and economies of scale have caused tremendous advancements in energy storage with costs dropping 73% since 2010, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Integrating with SunPower's existing commercial solar solu- tions, Helix Storage significantly reduces electricity expenses for customers while increasing the benefits of solar. "SunPower has a decade of experience monitoring nearly 1.7 gigawatts of com - mercial solar projects to best understand how they perform, giving us a unique advantage when maximizing the value of a complete solar-plus-storage solution," said Norm Taffe, SunPower Executive Vice President, Products. "We've used these key learnings to develop an intuitive, reli - able storage offering for our commercial customers, further maximizing the benefits of SunPower's roof, carport and ground- mount solar solutions." SunPower also provides solar panel systems for home- owners that can last for up to 40 years. The integrated Helix Storage solution includes an intelligent software control system that predicts energy consumption from the grid and automatically dispatches stored solar electricity from the battery to lower demand charges, a safe, reliable bat - tery technology, and turn-key services to design, install, operate and maintain systems. "With Helix Storage, SunPower continues to raise the bar with innova - tive energy solutions for its customers," Taffe continued. "We've invested heavily in growing SunPower's software capabili - ties to develop a more robust and flexible control platform, and are now applying that to manage solar and storage. Helix Storage uses predictive analytics to dispatch stored solar energy at times when electricity costs are highest, maximizing savings for our customers." Helix Storage is an extension of SunPower's Helix solar offering, the world's first turnkey commercial solar solution, available since 2015. n