Willowbrook Solar+: Enabling Clean Energy in Disadvantaged Communities with Integrated PV + Storage

The project was developed to identify scalable community models to maximize the economic benefits of advanced distributed energy resources (DERs) for low-income multifamily residences and to evaluate how these technologies could enable grid flexibility, environmental and societal benefits for both the customer and the local electrical grid. The project team assessed technology innovations that addressed bifacial PV conversion efficiency, the integration of solar and storage with smart inverters and segmentation of storage for various needs, a platform to manage customer loads, and the use of DC distribution and appliances to eliminate DER conversion losses.

The results at Willowbrook illustrate potential future advanced technology benefits that include lowered costs for the property residents as well as greater load management and reliability benefits for the local utility and larger electrical operating system. The demonstration also offers technology implementation pathways and lessons learned for more effective project design, program development, and policy stakeholders targeting the low-income multifamily sector in California with advanced integrated resource deployments.