Solar and Battery Storage System Comes Online at Monterey County Jail
Sunrock Distributed Generation came up with and paid for a solar and battery storage plant that is presently running in the County Jail in Salinas, California. With money from a PPA, it is estimated to save the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the prison, more than $12 million during its lifespan.
System Specifications and Energy Production
The facility has a carport solar array with a capacity of 1.243 MW and a Tesla battery system with a capacity of 1.043 MW/2.087 MWh. It is estimated to provide more than 2,000 MWh of clean power per year. This will cover around 55% of the County Jail’s yearly energy costs.
The County of Monterey and local EPC Mynt Systems have been working together for a long time on this project. They worked with Sunrock Distributed Generation to design the system and get funding via a PPA.
Rob Hymes, Chief Development Officer of Mynt Systems, says,
“Bringing this project online shows what can happen when strong public partners work with experienced developers and long-term capital.”
“This system was built with safety in mind, and it is expected to save millions of dollars that can be used to support sustainability and community resilience.”
Navigating Policy Changes and Safety Requirements
After a multi-year development process that dealt with big changes in federal energy policy, like changes to investment tax credit eligibility, domestic content requirements, and foreign entity of concern rules, as well as building codes and safety standards for battery energy storage systems that changed quickly, the installation got PTO in December 2025.
A fire at the neighboring Moss Landing energy storage project in January 2025 that included nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries drew further attention from the public and the industry to battery safety. The County Jail’s system was built using lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery technology, which is known for having a lower danger of thermal runaway than other kinds of batteries. The project’s partners worked closely with the County of Monterey’s Health and Safety Division and Emergency Preparedness teams to make sure that the approach was safe and cautious, as it should be for a correctional institution.
Wilson Chang, CEO and Co-Founder of Sunrock Distributed Generation, says,
“The successful completion of this project shows how disciplined project finance can provide long-term infrastructure certainty even when major policy changes happen.”
“We are proud to have worked with the Mynt team and our partners to create and build a solar-plus-storage asset that the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office can use to save money on energy, have predictable costs, be more resilient, and have a safe storage solution.”
