Two Maui-based companies, Neighborhood Power Corp. and Mana Monitoring, have partnered on a large community solar power project in Oregon.
Neighborhood Power, a solar seller with an office in
Kahului, and Mana Monitoring, a cloud-based energy solutions management
specialist in Lahaina, combined to develop four 2.5-megawatt solar farms within
the service territory of Portland General Electric.
Three of the four farms are currently operational, according
to Mana Monitoring. They are the first commissioned projects in Oregon’s newly
mandated Community Solar Program, in which commercial and low-income
residential customers — especially those without the means to add their own
solar panels — can purchase energy from nearby renewable sources.
According to the program, its early returns have seen
subscribers save an average of 5-20% on annual electricity costs.
“We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to benefit
from renewable energy but also recognize not every home, building, or housing
situation allows for the purchase and installation of solar PV,” said Benjamin
S. Collinwood, vice president of sales at Neighborhood Power, in a statement.
“Community solar projects like this help contribute to a healthier environment
for the entire community, and Mana Monitoring helps us ensure our solar farms
reach peak performance and generate the expected returns we can pass on to
subscribers.”
Mana Monitoring’s platform tracks, or aggregates, the
production of each farm on a centralized dashboard in order to maximize solar
performance.
“Real-time monitoring is essential for managers of community
solar projects like Neighborhood Power to optimize system uptime, which
ultimately translates into maximum savings for subscribers,” said Zoltan
Milaskey, president of Mana Monitoring, in a statement. “Mana Monitoring’s
platform is used on more than 500 MW of energy nationally, and working with
other renewable energy experts like Neighborhood Power allows us to bring our
combined experience to Oregon in a powerful way.”
Pacific Business News profiled Milaskey in 2019, while
Neighborhood Power’s Stephen Gates wrote a PBN piece about he opened markets in
an unstable industry in PBN in 2015.
