SunPower : Strengthening Communities Against Power Outages with Clean Energy and Smart Home Technology

With energy demands growing every dayand severeweather events increasingly putting electrical grids under stress, homeowners are seeking more reliable and resilient solutions to powertheir homes.

In 10 pilot projects across the country, including new construction homes, workplaces and a university, the Department of Energy (DOE) is working with private sector companies, public utilities and learning institutions to create energy smart "Connected Communities." Madeup ofgrid-interactive energy efficient homesand buildings that use smart controls, sensorsand analytics to communicate with the power grid. As a result, it reducesthe energy requiredduring periods of peak demand.

Keeping the Power On - Even When the Electrical Grid Goes Out

While some commercial buildings and industrial sites have been using microgrids for years, they are a new energy resource in residential communities. Residential microgrids enable a group of homes to generate, store and share their own electricity, especially duringemergency situations when the utility grid goes down.Because each microgrid community has interconnected power, all the houses share electricity, and all benefit from the same backup and enhanced power grid resilience.

Creating Neighborhoods That Use Power Wisely - and Communally

SunPower is leading the efforts in oneof theseconnected communities projects, overseeing project partners, providing clean energy services and technologyand ensuring thathome energy systems interact with the electric grid more reliably and efficiently.

KB Homes'Oak Shade and Durangoat Shadow Mountain, will be the first residential new construction neighborhoods in California to bedesigned and builtfrom the ground up with smarthometechnologies. This includessolar panels, a backupsolarbattery in every home and a local electrical grid connectedto a self-supporting energy system with a 2.3-megawatt community battery.

SunPower and KB Home have a long-standing history of working together to bring innovative technology and sustainabilityto new homes. Oak Shade and Durango at Shadow Mountain provided both companies with an opportunity to demonstrate how new build homes can sustainably and affordably produce and store renewable energy. When connected to a community battery, entire neighborhoods can reduce their impact and reliance on the publicutilitygridwhile lowering their overall energy costs.

Each of the houses in the new developments will be equipped with aSunPower Equinox®solar system and a 13kWhSunVault® Storagebattery. SunPower's solar battery storage system stores extra energy generated by the home's solar panels for future use. During outages, SunVault can provide seamless backup power by tapping into the reserve energy. SunVault also features a clean, minimal design and comes with an industry-leading 10-year warranty.

In addition, SunPower will provide electric vehicle(EV) charging optionsthat will be pre-wired into every garage. Some will havebidirectional charging, which enables an EV to be an additional source of energy for the home during a blackout. All of the new homes are designed and built to meet the DOE's Zero Energy Ready Home criteria, which can help homeowners reduce average energy use by up to 40%. This level of optimum energy efficiency reduces the power demands of the entire community on the electrical grid while reducing energy costs and emissions.

SunPower is proud to be at the forefront of creating new, power-outage resistant communities that will offer a blueprint for creating a new generation of sustainable, energy-resilient residential developments across the country.

For more information, please visit sunpower.com/connectedcommunities.

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