Each unit will have a battery within the living space to help build awareness and comfort of large-scale residential battery power storage. A kitchen in the Soleil Lofts containing a Sonnen battery. Tesla just released a Mega Pack product utilizing batteries to achieve a similar goal. Rocky Mountain Power can call upon this extra electricity during, say, a warm summer day when nearby users have all turned on their air conditioning.ĭeployed at scale, this kind of system can make the entire grid more efficient and reduce the need for peaker plants, the smaller power plants fired up by utilities during times of high demand. Soleil’s battery system, which accounts for 12.6 megawatt-hours of solar energy storage, is a “dynamic, living, breathing resource for the grid, operated by the grid and for the utility,” according to Richetta. We expect the population in the region to double in the next 20 to 25 years, and if we don’t make changes now, it’s going to be too late.” The Soleil Lofts project will create a “virtual power plant,” combining the storage power of all the residential batteries to help provide power to the greater energy grid during times of peak demand. “Part of that is changing our building practices, and showing everybody we can do this. “We want to make an overall impact, not just for the local community, but to help improve the air quality in the state of Utah,” says Blake Richetta, chief executive officer of Sonnen, the company supplying batteries for the project.
The development will be powered via rooftop solar panels backed up with battery storage, with an individual battery system in each rental unit, and will be all-electric, eschewing gas stoves and heating.ĭevelopers from The Wasatch Group, the firm behind the project, claim Soleil Lofts is the “largest residential solar virtual power plant” in the country not only will the extensive battery storage mean 24-hour electricity for residents, but a partnership with the local utility, Rocky Mountain Power, and Sonnen means the combined battery system can in effect “sell back” power to the grid, especially during times of peak demand. The Soleil Lofts, a $125 million, 600-unit apartment complex in Herriman, Utah, that’s roughly 25 miles south of Salt Lake, will be a net-zero development, meaning it will generate as much electricity as it needs. A new apartment development in Utah wants to model sustainable living not just by serving as a prototype for the region, but by demonstrating a game-changing way to expand residential renewable power capacity.
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