Critical Municipal Facilities

Ava’s Critical Municipal Facilities program is bringing solar and battery storage to essential city services across Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, and Livermore. Across eight sites, we are installing 500 kW of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels and 1.32 MWh of battery storage, generating 778,000 kWh of local renewable energy in the first year alone.

These systems serve facilities our communities depend on most, including fire stations, community centers, food banks, equipment yards, and city council buildings. They’re designed to keep critical services running during power outages while reducing energy costs and increasing local generation. 

Solar and battery storage systems can help ensure the most important facilities in our community are powered by local, renewable energy and stay open during grid outages. 

But local governments face several barriers to installing solar and battery systems. They often lack the time, funding, or technical expertise, and smaller facilities can’t reach the scale needed for bulk purchasing advantages. Similarly, contractors face disproportionately high upfront costs for smaller installations.

The Critical Municipal Facilities program was developed to remove those barriers. Cities benefit from 25-year power purchase agreements with no upfront costs, achieving cost savings compared to maintaining the status quo while gaining resilience benefits and long-term energy price protection.  

All projects are scheduled for completion and interconnection in 2026.

Working directly with our member jurisdictions and regional partners, Ava invests in public infrastructure projects and technical assistance that advance regional decarbonization goals.