Interactive kiosk encourages public engagement with electric technologies
Los Altos Hills, CA — Last week, the Town of Los Altos Hills held a ribbon cutting to commemorate the completion of a backup battery installation at the Town Hall. The new energy backup system connects to a preexisting solar array, allowing the Town to capture excess renewable energy and draw on that stored energy in the event of a power outage.
Los Altos Hills accompanied the backup battery with an outdoor interactive kiosk where residents can learn more about how their town is reducing local emissions, improving air quality, and maintaining uninterrupted power. The battery and kiosk installations received $120,000 in grant funding from Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE). Additional funding came from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES).
On August 29, Los Altos Hills Mayor Stanley Mok, SVCE CEO Monica Padilla, and Syserco Vice President and General Manager Scott Meinzen met with the Los Altos Hills community to celebrate the energy resilience milestone. Lunch and a facility tour followed the short remarks and ribbon cutting.
“I am beyond excited to officially open Town Hall’s Battery Energy Storage System,” said Los Altos Hills Mayor Stanley Mok. “This capital improvement project educates residents about the advancements in green infrastructure and encourages everyone to electrify their own homes.”
The 310 kilowatt-hour battery can sustain power to the Town Hall for 12 hours. During sunny weather the battery can recharge with solar energy, and selective manual load control can increase the battery use to an almost indefinite period if good weather prevails.
The solar-powered educational kiosk allows visitors to engage with the Town Hall’s many electric, renewable, and load-shifting technologies. The features of the physical installation are also available online here.
The Town hopes this project can be an example of how facilities can expand on their solar capabilities to become more resilient during emergencies, improve power efficiency and reduce energy costs.
“It’s great to see Los Altos Hills build upon their solar array and increase not only community resiliency, but also demonstrate fiscal responsibility,” said Los Altos Hills Councilmember and SVCE Board Vice Chair George Tyson. “The Town will save on energy costs during normal operations by recharging during off-peak hours when energy is cheaper, and offloading power back to the grid when energy is more expensive at peak demand.”
The Los Altos Hills Town Hall Project joins six other clean energy and resilience installations to reach completion since SVCE Community Grant funding was released in 2020. Explore the different ways SVCE is investing in community resiliency at svcleanenergy.org/community-resilience.
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About Silicon Valley Clean Energy
Silicon Valley Clean Energy is a not-for-profit, community-owned agency providing electricity from renewable and clean sources to more than 275,000 residential and commercial customers in 13 Santa Clara County jurisdictions. As a public agency, net revenues are returned to the community to keep rates competitive and promote clean energy programs. Silicon Valley Clean Energy is advancing innovative solutions to fight climate change by decarbonizing the grid, transportation, and buildings. Learn more at SVCleanEnergy.org.
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