New York

PUSH School 77

2017

People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH) Buffalo and the Buffalo Neighborhood Stabilization Corp are redeveloping the former Buffalo Public School Number 77 into a mixed-use facility in the West Side neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. The School 77 project will transform the currently vacant building into 30 affordable senior housing units, office space, community space, a community recreational gymnasium, and an auditorium for a local theater company.

With our partners American Microgrid Solutions and Clean Energy Group, muGrid Analytics analyzed the techno-economic feasibility of using a solar plus storage system for utility bill savings and enhanced resiliency at the renovated building. We first used the NYSERDA Solar Value Stack Calculator to estimate the monetary compensation that the rooftop community solar array could be expected to generate under the state’s new Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VDER) program. We then evaluated the potential for behind-the-meter battery energy storage to perform peaking using our Redcloud energy optimization platform. Finally, we evaluated the potential for using an economically-driven solar + storage system, in combination with planned firm generation, to provide enhanced resiliency at the facility.