Manzanita Hybrid Power system Project Final Report

The Manzanita Indian Reservation is located in southeastern San Diego County, California. The Tribe has long recognized that the Reservation has an abundant wind resource that could be commercially utilized to its benefit, and in 1995 the Tribe established the Manzanita Renewable Energy Office. Through the U.S. Department of Energy's Tribal Energy Program the Band received funds to install a hybrid renewable power system to provide electricity to one of the tribal community buildings, the Manzanita Activities Center (MAC building). The project began September 30, 1999 and was completed March 31, 2005. The system was designed and the equipment supplied by Northern Power Systems, Inc, an engineering company with expertise in renewable hybrid system design and development. Personnel of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory provided technical assistance in system design, and continued to provide technical assistance in system monitoring. The grid-connected renewable hybrid wind/photovoltaic system provides a demonstration of a solar/wind energy hybrid power-generating project on Manzanita Tribal land. During the system design phase, the National Renewable Energy Lab estimated that the wind turbine is expected to produce 10,000-kilowatt hours per year and the solar array 2,000-kilowatt hours per year. The hybrid system was designed to provide approximately 80 percent of the electricity used annually in the MAC building. The project proposed to demonstrate that this kind of a system design would provide highly reliable renewable power for community uses