Belle Haven Community Campus
Designed a resilient, net-zero community campus with 24-hour emergency power
Summary
The 37,000-square-foot Belle Haven Community Campus in Menlo Park opened in May 2024 as one of the region’s first net-zero, all-electric community campuses powered by a microgrid. The facility houses a senior center, community center, youth center, recreational pool, and branch library and is a key contributor to the City’s 2030 carbon-neutrality targets under the Menlo Park Climate Action Plan.
Developed by the City in partnership with Meta and ENGIE North America, the campus integrates solar PV, solar thermal, and battery energy storage to operate as a low-carbon, resilient public facility.
Optony served as the City’s independent advisor, managing procurement of the PV microgrid, reviewing system design, and overseeing construction quality to ensure successful system deployment and long-term performance.
The Challenge
Integrating multiple distributed energy resources within a public facility while managing complex procurement, contracting, permitting, and interconnection processes. Aligning system design, regulatory approvals, and construction schedules across project partners created significant coordination challenges that had to be addressed to deliver a functional net-zero microgrid.
Our Approach
The Optony team took the lead on managing the entire RFP process which included overseeing requirements gathering, solicitation writing, developing a complete evaluation criterion, and managing bid solicitation to vendor evaluations. The team also managed the interviews process and contract negotiations based on the latest industry trends and best practices, tailored specifically to the needs of the Belle Haven Community Center.
Optony developed procurement documents based on existing City materials, prior Optony templates, and relevant peer examples, using online platforms for collaborative review while maintaining document control and allowing the Menlo Park team to retain final authority over solicitation approval and issuance.
Following the City’s issuance of the solicitation, Optony managed the entire process, including responding to inquiries, organizing pre-proposal meetings and site visits, collecting submittals, and providing initial evaluations and recommendations for review by Menlo Park.
Optony then assisted Menlo Park in reviewing, scoring, and interviewing vendors—preparing agendas and questions, and leading interviews, when requested.
Optony also supported final scoring, contract negotiations, and coordination with legal and other stakeholders to ensure the selected contracts aligned with Menlo Park's ultimate end goals effectively. Part of this process involved an Independent Engineering Review by Optony before, during, and following installation to minimize risks while delivering maximum economic returns to both investors and owners. This process served dual purposes:
- Reduced discrepancies in proposed system designs, components and construction, improving overall lifetime performance
- Assisted the City to resolve construction issues and inspect the system during and after construction
100% net-zero energy
Achieved through a solar and storage microgrid
24-hrs of backup power
Capable of powering the campus through 24-hours during emergency situations.
LEED Platinum certified
Creating an innovative and resilience hub for the community of Menlo Park, California.
55% modeled energy use reduction
Despite energy-intensive features throughout, the Campus models achieves energy reduction.
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Solutions Delivered
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Solar Feasibility
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Resilience Planning
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Load Forecasting
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Grant and Incentive Identification
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Battery Energy Sizing System Sizing and Assessment
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Vendor Negotiations & Contract Management
The Solution
The Menlo Park Community Campus microgrid was successfully designed and implemented to align with Menlo Park’s 2030 Climate Action Plan of achieving net-zero energy consumption.
Through the support and oversight from Optony, the microgrid system provides uninterrupted power. The system has even been certified as a Red Cross shelter and can maintain power during emergencies, providing the community significant benefits beyond the Campus itself.
“Optony has been an invaluable partner on the BHCC microgrid project. Stepping into the project in its later stages, I relied on their team to quickly get up to speed.
Their guidance has helped keep the project aligned, progressing smoothly towards final completion, and receive award recognition for its efforts in sustainability and resilience.
Mitchell Supan
Associate Engineer, City of Menlo Park
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The LEED Platinum certified Campus includes a 546 kW rooftop and carport solar PV system paired with a 367 kW / 1468 kWh battery energy storage system capable of
powering the entire building for at least 24 hours during an outage, with optional mobile generators for extended events.
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A 360 kWt solar thermal system beneath the solar PV panels heats the pool for most of the year by circulating a sun-warmed glycol solution through a heat exchanger,
supplemented as needed by a water-to-water heat pump for temperature boost and an air-source heat pump during winter months.
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The project includes twelve dual-port Level 2 and three single-port DC fast EV charging stations available to local multifamily residents, with select stations capable of operating in microgrid mode to charge vehicles during grid outages.
