Lendleasea real estate and investment group that manages nearly 8,000 homes for the U.S. military on Oahu, and Holu Hou energy (HHE), a design-to-service provider of solar and energy storage systems, has signed an agreement to install HHE’s HoluPower energy storage and solar PV systems in homes at Lendlease’s Island Palm Communities.
The installations come in the form of HHE’s EnergyCluster, where the systems of several apartments are connected to the energy network. Excess solar power from the system of any unit in the grid, which would normally be lost, is shared directly in real time with other connected units whose load is greater than the solar energy production. The benefit is that optimized PV and energy storage systems can meet 75-80 percent or more of the total energy needs of residents without exporting electricity to the grid.
“Lendlease Communities is proud to partner with Holu Hou Energy on this innovative renewable energy project that will not only improve the quality of life for military families in Island Palm Communities, but also contribute to a more sustainable and stable power grid on Oahu.” says Matt Lynn, Lendlease’s Energy and General Manager.
Lendlease and HHE began planning in 2021, culminating in the construction of the pilot project in May 2022. Since then, the pilot has been operating across six apartments. In a typical month, about a third of the total electricity production is shared with the other units in the cluster, which solves the problems related to underutilization and resident load fluctuations and proves the value produced by clustered systems compared to independent systems.
The savings achieved by Island Palm Communities through the deployment of HHE’s systems will be reinvested to improve the housing and amenities Lendlease provides to military families on installation. In addition, residents now have backup power that can be used during power outages.
Each apartment has approximately 10 kW of solar electricity and 25 kWh of energy storage, and typically six apartments are connected to the HHE EnergyShare network. Construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2023, with the first installations at the Aliamanu Military Reservation near Honolulu.
