Resilient Power Retrofit: How a Minnesota Nature Center Became a Solar+Storage Community Shelter

In this webinar presented by Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project, guest speakers from the University of Minnesota Duluth and the community nonprofit Ecolibrium3 shared details about the resilient power retrofit at Hartley Nature Center in Duluth, Minnesota.

Solar+storage proved to be a win-win solution to meet Hartley Nature Center’s goals of reducing electricity costs, providing public education, and improving community energy security. In this project, a battery storage system was added to an existing solar PV array. The resulting solar+storage system will serve as a community shelter during emergency outages, with the capability to act as a base of operations for the city’s emergency response efforts. The retrofit process was also used as a learning opportunity for local electrical installers through a continuing education class to install and commission the system. Along with improved resiliency and ongoing public education, the City of Duluth intends to use this project as a demonstration model of solar+storage technologies, which could lead to more resilient solar+storage development throughout the city.

In this webinar, presenters discussed the project development process and challenges faced and overcome throughout planning and installation of the system.

Guest Speakers:

• Bret Pence, Program Specialist, Ecolibrium3
• Alison Hoxie, Assistant Professor – Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Minnesota Duluth
• Seth Mullendore, Project Director, Clean Energy Group (Moderator)

This webinar was a presentation of Clean Energy Group’s Resilient Power Project. For more information, visit www.resilient-power.org.