Energy Storage in the Southwest: Battery Case Studies from Albuquerque Public Schools and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority

New solar+storage systems have been installed at Atrisco Heritage Academy (AHA) High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico and in the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) in Arizona. Both projects were presented in this ESTAP webinar.

AHA is a bilingual education facility rich in diverse ethnicities and higher education college prep programs. It is the largest school in the Albuquerque Public School District, serving 2,200 students of which 14% come from disadvantaged households. The installation, which includes an 850 kW solar array combined with a 721 kW Tesla Megapack 2 battery storage system, will reduce school energy costs by $3.5 million over the system’s 25-year lifetime. In the future, the school may update the system to provide backup power in case of power outages.

The NTUA has installed and is assessing a new battery technology, the Zinc-Manganese Oxide battery, for household use. Prior to this project, the NTUA had deployed turn-key solar photovoltaic and flooded lead acid battery storage systems to off-grid rural residents. However, those systems require regular maintenance, and even with these systems, there still are currently over 18,000 residents on the reservation without electricity. The Zinc-Manganese Oxide battery has the potential to decrease operational and maintenance costs and make powering more Tribal homes possible.

These battery systems are among the most recent demonstration projects jointly supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity and Sandia National Laboratories, and Clean Energy States Alliance.

Panelists:
• Dr. Imre Gyuk, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity
• Anthony Sparks, Albuquerque Public Schools
• Galina Kofchock, Osceola Energy Solar
• Henry Guan, Sandia National Laboratories
• Todd Olinsky-Paul, Clean Energy States Alliance (moderator)

This webinar was a presentation of the Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP). ESTAP is a federal-state funding and information sharing project that aims to accelerate the deployment of electrical energy storage technologies in the U.S. ESTAP is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Electricity, managed by Sandia National Laboratories, and administered by the Clean Energy States Alliance.