Commercial and industrial (C&I) solar developer Greenskies Clean Energy became the first company to hit Premier Partner status in the Stem Partner Program with a required minimum 5 MWh of fulfilled projects. To attain this goal, Greenskies’ team fully completed the three certification tracks as part of Stem University – sales, sales analytics, and deployment – to sell, install, and manage energy storage systems with Stem.
“Our partnership with Stem enables us to offer compelling solar-plus-storage solutions,” said Stanley Chin, CEO and vice chairman of Greenskies. “Not only are our customers saving on their electricity bills, but we can also substantially reduce their demand charges and provide backup power when the grid goes down.”
As proof of concept, the company points to recent winning bids such as a multisite behind the meter (BTM) project in Southern California providing backup power and utility bill optimization, and both BTM and front of the meter (FTM) projects with a local electric cooperative on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Projects totaling nearly 10,000 kWh / 5,000 kW are currently underway in California and Massachusetts.
“Stem’s Partner Program and its wide variety of solutions have been gamechangers in our ability to develop solar-plus-storage,” said Steve Liu, vice president of Engineering and Procurement for Greenskies. “As a developer who works on very tight deadlines, having the wealth of information and resources from Stem has been a key differentiator. And through Stem University, we easily enabled a growing number of our staff to understand the complexities of solar-plus-storage.”
Bicoastal Deployments
In the Greater Los Angeles area, Greenskies and Stem are developing an 8,000kWh / 4,000kW commercial BTM project comprised of five systems in four fulfillment centers operated by a major retailer. Greenskies was initially tasked to integrate storage with solar already installed on the buildings. This would enable the customer to optimize its utility bill by shifting its time of solar energy use to the evenings when electricity from the grid is more expensive. When the customer added an additional requirement for backup capabilities late in the project, Greenskies was able to quickly integrate Stem for backup power, replacing diesel generators in one of the systems.
On Martha’s Vineyard in the Town of Oak Bluffs, Mass., Greenskies and Stem are deploying both FTM and BTM projects in conjunction with the Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative Inc. (CVEC). The 1040 kWh / 500kW FTM project, located at the Oak Bluffs Landfill, will leverage AthenaTM, Stem’s industry-leading AI platform, to comply with requirements of the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) Program. In addition, Athena will enable the project to participate in wholesale markets managed by Independent System Operator-New England (ISO-NE). The BTM project is a 232kWh / 58kW deployment at Oak Bluffs Elementary School which also features backup capabilities for a fast, automatic transition to battery power when the grid goes down.
“Greenskies is a prime example of how Stem successfully collaborates with partners and shares the experience we have gained during the past decade working with solar developers,” said John E. Carrington, CEO of Stem. “By participating in Stem University and our Partner Program, Greenskies quickly built deep expertise in designing and deploying solar-plus-storage solutions that empowers it to bring these innovative solutions to customers ranging from major corporations to local communities.”
— Solar Builder magazine
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