MILPITAS, CA – Staar Surgical, a leading manufacturer of implantable lenses used in
ophthalmic surgery, has inaugurated a 1.1MW grid-tied microgrid on its production facility in
Lake Forest, California. Now operational, the system was installed to meet three important goals:
reduce energy costs, improve sustainability, and, most importantly of all, safeguard production in
the event of grid outages caused by extreme weather events.
The microgrid is powered by a 780kW SolarEdge DC-optimized inverter solar system
located on the facility’s roof and two newly-constructed carports. The 1752-module system is
expected to cut Staar Surgical’s energy costs by approximately 50%, representing an annual
saving of around $325,000. However, this figure could be a drop in the ocean compared to the
savings that could potentially be achieved by preventing spoiled production runs.
Jay Cutting, Snr., President of building and solar contractor, ReVamp Energy, which
designed, installed and will maintain the microgrid, explains: “Manufacturing contact lenses is a
highly energy-intensive process that requires each lens to be heated in an industrial kiln
continuously for several days. Any reduction in power of more than a few seconds has the
potential to ruin an entire production run, leading to losses of potentially hundreds or thousands
of dollars. The increasing frequency of red flag weather events in California necessitated that
Staar Surgical address the mission-critical challenge of identifying a cost-effective and
sustainable method to safeguard production.”
Excess solar energy produced during the day will be stored in a 450kW battery to power
the site’s 24/7 production lines and provide essential backup in the event of power outages. The
battery is expected to provide between eight and 24 hours of back-up power, dependent upon the
manufacturing facility’s load requirements. In the rare event that an outage lasts even longer, the
system also includes a generator, giving Staar Surgical the ability to maintain production.
To ensure seamless operation, ReVamp Energy designed custom-made switchgear that
will automatically switch the site’s energy supply to back-up power in the event of a power
outage. For added convenience, the microgrid is manageable via the SolarEdge monitoring
platform. This will enable Staar Surgical and ReVamp Energy to track a variety of key
parameters such as solar energy production, consumption and battery energy levels in real-time
and from a single platform.
Cutting, Snr. comments: “We have worked with Staar Surgical on several solar
installations and for each one we have used SolarEdge technology – it is a key component of
realising the client’s requirement for high energy production, reliability, and intelligent control.
This starts with the use of Power Optimizers to pull more power from the solar arrays, and
extends through to the generation of highly-granular performance data that will enable us to
operate and maintain not just the solar installation, but the entire microgrid, in the most efficient
and cost-effective way possible.”
SolarEdge is a global leader in smart energy technology. Visit them at:
https://www.solaredge.com.
