Berkeley council approves 25-year solar-plus-storage contract to bring resilience to two city sites

The Berkeley City Council voted unanimously Oct. 29 to authorize the city manager to negotiate and execute a 25-year power purchase agreement with AVA Community Energy to install solar and battery storage systems at two municipal facilities, beginning with Live Oak Community Center and the adjoining courtyard.

City staff said the contract is structured as a power-purchase agreement (PPA) so the city will pay for electricity produced on-site rather than buy and maintain equipment. Marna Schwartz, sustainability program manager in the Office of Energy and Sustainable Development, told the council the project carries no upfront cost for the city and is intended to improve energy assurance and community resilience during outages.

"The solar and storage equipment will allow the facilities to isolate from the grid in the case of a power outage and continue to operate emergency loads," Marna Schwartz said during the presentation.

The project is part of a multi-city procurement AVA is undertaking to secure better pricing by aggregating sites. AVA has identified Greenbridge as financing partner and Gridscape as the solar installer and storage developer; the proposed agreement requires contractors to pay prevailing wages and to seek local hires from Alameda County and the San Joaquin Valley.

Concerns from the public and some council members centered on battery sizing and whether the systems would sustain shelter operations during prolonged winter outages. Kelly Hammergren, a longtime Berkeley resident who has installed residential solar and batteries, asked whether the installed battery would provide sufficient hours for emergency shelter needs.

"If this is also a shelter, and our battery is going to last for two and a half hours, how in the wintertime, when it's cold, will people there be cared for?" Hammergren asked.

JP Ross, vice president of local development at AVA, described the sizing approach and tradeoffs, saying Live Oak’s system will include about a 37 kilowatt photovoltaic array and a roughly 77 kilowatt-hour battery. Ross said the PV can recharge the battery during sunny periods and that the design balanced resilience goals with cost effectiveness.

"During the daytime we'll be producing more energy, and we'll be able to recharge that battery," Ross said, adding that the project includes contractual penalties to keep to the installation timeline and that the team has ordered long-lead gear to meet an April 2026 energization window needed to qualify for earlier net-energy-metering rates.

Supporters on the council and in the community described the plan as a cost-saving resilience opportunity and a stepping stone to broader microgrid efforts. Ben Paulus, a former chair of Berkeley’s Energy Commission, called it a model that should be replicated across more municipal facilities.

The motion authorizing the staff recommendation passed unanimously; staff said Gridscape would begin permitting and procurement upon contract execution with the aim of installing the systems and meeting the NEM‑2 grandfathering deadline.