Groundbreaking green energy storage unveiled in Santa Cruz County

Northern California’s largest green energy installation was unveiled in Santa Cruz County Monday afternoon, according to Silicon Valley-based Green Charge Networks.

Project managers said the new intelligent energy storage system will be a first for Santa Cruz County and will save the county at least $19,000 in energy costs per year.

Santa Cruz County said it’s known for going green. Now county leaders said they’re continuing that effort through a new project, including county car charging stations. Those are one part of a program designed to save the county money. State of the art energy storage systems are the other money savers. The CEO of Green Charge Networks explained just how the machines work.

“The system anticipates the peaks in the building and right at that time it releases energy from the energy storage reserves to level off the peak and doing so it’s saving the host customer money on their electric bill,” said CEO Vic Shao.

There is no installation cost so the county didn’t have to fork out any money up front. However, Green Charge Networks will get at least 30-50% of the county savings. The county believes it’s worth it.

“It’s tax payers money that we use to pay for all the bills and this will save about $19,000 a year on energy cost,” said County Supervisor, Greg Caput.

The energy units run on lithium ion batteries, similar to Tesla cars. Many other companies use the energy storage systems but it’s a first for Santa Cruz County.

“It’s a shining example of the next wave of technology to come,” said Shao.

The county has a ten year contract with Green Charge Networks, after that they can decide if they want to continue it.