Cohousing-L Mailing List: Fwd: Anyone cohousing communities out there using (or considering) a Community Microgrid?

[Jean Foster (jean.l.foster]

Hello,

I live at Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farms in NH and we are beginning to 
explore what it would take to get us to Net Zero. Considering the state of our 
world, becoming energy self-sufficient is looking more attractive every day:( 

Almost all of our buildings have solar panels and we have a community heating 
system using pellets which we know we need to eventually replace with something 
more sustainable. Over the past several years a good many neighbors have 
purchased EVs and we’ve installed two level 2 chargers with another one 
planned. We’d all love to be able to charge in our garages but to bring in 
enough power from the grid to handle that load is currently not economically 
feasible.

One idea we are researching is using a Community Microgrid to connect all of 
our solar panels and allow the smart microgrid technology to manage energy flow 
efficiently, along with the addition of some sort of energy storage. We’d also 
expand the number of solar panels on common buildings and as car ports, etc.

We’d love to hear from other communities out there who are either doing 
something like this or are also in the beginning stages of researching it.

best,
Jean Foster
Nubanusit Neighborhood and Farm <https://www.nhcohousing.com/home.html>
Peterborough, NH