Redmond staff review solar-plus-storage feasibility for four city facilities

City sustainability staff and a consulting firm told the Redmond City Council on April 8 that rooftop solar paired with battery storage could give several city facilities months of resilience during summer outages and reduce utility costs when the grid is operating.

Jenny Liebeck, Redmond’s sustainability manager, said the work was funded by a grant from the Washington Department of Commerce and was intended as a baseline feasibility study of four city facilities considered critical during emergencies. “One of our primary goals was really to come into this with a posture of learning,” Liebeck said. Ecotope consultant Mark Frankel walked the council through the technical assumptions and outcomes.

The study evaluated rooftop area limits and used daily generation/load profiles to test whether solar plus storage could run buildings in full operation, in a reduced emergency mode, or seasonally. For the…