Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Industrial, Microgrids  -  February 2, 2016

Hoboken microgrid supports renewable energy, efficiency, greenhouse gas reporting

The city of Hoboken, N.J., located directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan was knocked offline for about two weeks in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. As a result, city leadership embarked on an ambitious goal to develop a microgrid that could provide resiliency in the face of a grid outage and utilize renewable energy sources.

With some funding support from the U.S. DOE, Sandia National Laboratories researched a solution and "identified 55 buildings — including police stations, fire departments, pharmacies, senior facilities and low-income housing — that needed critical back-up power through a microgrid," according to American City and County magazine.

Smart Energy Decisions content partner Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps also helped by designing a toolkit used to address the city’s specific needs and to serve as a potential blueprint for other community microgrids.

In order to ensure the microgrid incorporated clean energy solutions, the toolkit prioritized energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources while tracking greenhouse gas emissions. A dashboard feature allows participants to share knowledge on issues like energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions per building, use of renewables, and year-on-year costs. The tool can facilitate formal greenhouse gas reporting and ensure buildings are not using more energy than required.

The Resilient Microgrids Toolkit is now complete, and Hoboken plans to begin installing the microgrid this summer.   

Photo credit: Garrett Nantz / Shutterstock.com

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