SunPower, the College of California, Irvine (UCI), Schneider Electrical and Southern California Edison (SCE) introduced their partnership with KB House because the technique, analysis, expertise and vitality suppliers for the homebuilder’s newly launched Vitality-Sensible Related Communities in Menifee, California. Greater than 200 all-electric properties will likely be solar-powered, outfitted with particular person vitality storage techniques and related to a microgrid powered by a big, shared neighborhood battery. These power-outage resistant communities are designed to supply a blueprint for sustainable and resilient new dwelling growth of the longer term.
KB House, SunPower and UCI joined forces to reimagine what a brand new dwelling neighborhood may seem like if constructed to scale back carbon emissions, lower vitality prices and supply new methods of manufacturing dependable and resilient vitality. With a $6.65 million Department of Energy (DOE) grant, microgrid design and engineering help from Schneider Electrical, and powerful collaboration with SCE to make sure a clean transition between grid and off-grid electrical energy, these revolutionary properties at the moment are accessible to the general public.
“SunPower and KB House have a long-standing historical past of main the brand new dwelling business with vitality innovation and sustainability,” stated Matt Brost, VP of gross sales for brand spanking new properties at SunPower. “With this venture we’re taking a big leap towards creating communities from the bottom up which can be designed to supply sustainable and reasonably priced vitality and resiliency to the impacts of local weather change on our grid. We’re thrilled to leverage our learnings from this venture to affect continued innovation in dwelling constructing.”
All 219 of the properties within the new Durango and Oak Shade communities will likely be constructed to fulfill the Division of Vitality’s Zero Vitality Prepared House standards, which embrace Vitality Star, WaterSense, and Indoor airPLUS. Every dwelling comes with a SunPower Equinox photo voltaic system, a 13-kWh SunVault Storage battery, high-efficiency home equipment, versatile masses corresponding to electrical warmth pump water heaters and HVAC techniques and different good applied sciences like Schneider Electric’s Square D Energy Center and Connected Wiring Devices.
All properties will likely be pre-wired to be good electrical automobile (EV) charger prepared, and a few will exhibit bidirectional charging. EV chargers will likely be accessible for buy on the time of sale.
These communities provide a brand new imaginative and prescient for the way particular person properties work together with {the electrical} grid. Each dwelling, whereas sustaining its common service with native utility Southern California Edison, is designed to function throughout an outage as a part of a self-supporting microgrid, drawing vitality from its personal SunVault storage system in addition to a big neighborhood battery.
Extra vitality providers provided by SunPower permit residents to enroll in a digital energy plant (VPP) program by way of which their battery, EV chargers and different versatile masses will mechanically dispatch to help the electrical grid. Enrolled householders will likely be eligible for compensation for his or her participation in this system. UCI can even simulate the related microgrids, analyze knowledge from the VPP program, and collaborate with SCE to find out its effectiveness in supporting grid infrastructure.
“We’re excited to accomplice with business and tutorial leaders to deliver these superior applied sciences and vitality options to our householders. The brand new KB properties at Oak Shade and Durango at Shadow Mountain would be the first in California to be outfitted with good applied sciences, a backup battery and microgrid connectivity. These will present a self-supporting vitality system with a neighborhood battery that powers the neighborhood,” stated Dan Bridleman, senior VP of sustainability, expertise and strategic sourcing for KB House. “We look ahead to conducting analysis to measure the vitality effectivity and resiliency of our all-new energy-smart related communities.”
“This venture represents the longer term by evolving the good dwelling into a wise, sustainable neighborhood addressing core vitality challenges going through householders immediately, together with energy resiliency and rising utility prices,” stated Richard Korthauer, senior VP of dwelling and distribution for Schneider Electrical. “The brand new electrical future is a house with secure, environment friendly and dependable energy that meets our altering wants, with out compromising our price of dwelling, sustainability targets or consolation.”
Information merchandise from SunPower
