This Sustainable Energy Company Just Landed A Deal To Build 40 Megawatts Of Solar Powered Microgrids For One of California’s Largest Privately Owned Oil And Gas Company

SHREVEPORT, LA / ACCESSWIRE / November 3, 2023 / Correlate Energy Corp (OTCQB:CIPI) held a live investor summit webinar recently following the news that the distributed energy company had landed a major microgrid deal with one of California's largest privately owned oil and gas corporations. Correlate's largest deal to date, the microgrid project would see the development of 40 megawatts of solar power and storage capacity across twenty sites in the Los Angeles metro area.

The Role Of Microgrids In America's Clean Energy Transition

Microgrids are independent, local power grids that power anything from a single building to an entire community. Sustainable ones, like those Correlate is building as part of the new project in California, can offer cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy for the users connected to it.

Typically connected to the main grid, these local grids can flexibly switch between supporting the larger grid with sustainable, supplemental energy and providing electricity directly to the customers connected to it.

So, during ordinary use, microgrid owners can benefit from lower energy costs and even generate revenue by selling surplus electricity back to the grid. Then, in emergencies when the main grid goes down, owners have the agility to switch to using their own microgrid to avoid any interruption in power. In California especially, where electricity customers experience 5.4 hours of outages per year on average, that kind of flexibility and resiliency is becoming more and more important.

When set up to generate renewable energy, these microgrids are also more affordable. Electricity generated from fossil fuel is volatile today and can cost anywhere from $0.05 to $0.17 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) but will continue to get more expensive faster as regulations around it become increasingly strict, and the impact of inflation continues to drive the price higher.

Solar power, on the other hand, is a fixed rate and typically is at least ten percent cheaper today is projected to trend lower as the technology to build solar panels and storage infrastructure becomes more and more efficient. Moreover, microgrid owners are generating their own power, which gives them more control over the cost of the energy they generate.

As reimbursement programs, carbon credits and other policies aimed at incentivizing renewable energy use gain traction, microgrids often end up becoming a source of revenue that quickly outpaces the operational costs.