Questions:

1. How much electricity is used at San Marin? in Novato? 

2. How will your grid generate this electricity? 
3. How many of each type of generator will you need (ex. How many solar panels, 
how many wind turbines, how many natural gas power plants? Think about a 
balanced grid so you’re not entirely dependent on one source – what happens in 
the winter when the sun isn’t out as much?) 
4. How will your grid store this electricity? 
5. How will your grid get this electricity where it needs to go? 
6. How much will all of these components cost? What is the initial cost? What are 
the ongoing costs? 
 
 
 
Emma:  
 
1. How much electricity is used at San Marin? in Novato?  
San Marin used 2,512,426 KWH of electricity for the time of 1,431 days over the course 
of around 3 years. In a single year we used around 483,322 KWH in 2015. Everyday use 
was always under 1,900 KWH in 2015. Within the last 12 months, the City used 
1,691,381 kilowatts per hour of electricity.  
   
 
6. H​ ow much will all of these components cost? What is the initial cost? What 
are the ongoing costs? 
This project could cost anywhere from to 250,000 to 10 million for a small town. All of 
the components should cost  
 
 
 
Gigi: 
 
3. According to how much energy in kWh San Marin used in 2015, we would need to be 
able to generate around 485,000 kWh per year. We will be using solar panels,  
 
 
 
 
 
4.​ How will your grid store this electricity?  
We will use thermal energy storage and compressed air energy storage. The thermal 
storage will be mostly off of the solar panels we will have in the microgrid. The 
compressed air storage will be used using a turbine which will spin in result of the air 
inside of a tank. ​“ ​Molten salt energy storage systems are already applied in ​solar
thermal​ power plants, giving ​solar thermal plants the ability to store the energy​ they
generate during the day​.” ( ​http://berc.berkeley.edu/build-microgrid/​) “​Compressed air
storage systems store energy by compacting air and thereby putting it into a higher
energy state. When the energy is needed, the compressed air can then be expanded to
turn a turbine that generates the electricity.” (​http://berc.berkeley.edu/build-microgrid/​). 
 
 
250 KWH-- $ 1151607.60 
 

 
 
 

 
Vane: 
2. How will your grid generate this electricity? Our grid will generate energy with 
Hydropower plants, solar panels, and turbines. The solar panels will give thermal energy 
and the turbines will give power and hydropower plants will give hydropower. The 
turbines will be set at Stafford lake with wire connecting it to the school 
The solar panels will give thermal energy and hydropower plants will capture the 
kinetic energy of falling water. The turbines will convert the kinetic energy from falling 
water to mechanical energy and then the generator will convert that to electrical 
energy. Our grid will generate energy from Hydropower plants and solar panels.  
5. How will your grid get this electricity where it needs to go? By tubes and wires 
 
 
 
 
 
Important Sites: 
 
http://berc.berkeley.edu/build-microgrid/​ -- talks a lot about microgrids with multiple 
resources and is credible source