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North America / Commercial & demonstration

Stone Edge Farm Winery Microgrid

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations15
System facts36
Sources reviewed8
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

Stone Edge Farm's customer-owned Sonoma microgrid is an operational, long-running demonstration and working farm/winery system that has evolved repeatedly since 2013. Current owner material describes a 16-acre property with 25 buildings, seven service entrances, a 480 V three-phase bidirectional loop, a lower-voltage Critical Grid, distributed solar, several battery chemistries, a 65 kW gas microturbine with heat recovery, 28 kW of hydrogen fuel cells, electrolysis and hydrogen storage, pumps, and HVAC under decentralized Heila controls. The detailed owner tour's configuration snapshot lists 160 kW of PV and more than 600 kW of total capability, while a 2018 California Energy Commission case study reports a broader 1.185 MW cumulative installation including 368 kW PV, 324 kW of battery power, and a 400 kW electrolyzer. These are different dates and accounting boundaries, not necessarily an error; individual assets have been added, retired, or repurposed. During the October 2017 wildfire the site islanded for ten days, and by 2018 the owner reported independent normal operation. The current winery site still describes the microgrid as active and evolving. However, no recent audited energy mix, uptime, state-of-health, export, or carbon balance was found, and portions of the technical tour still use future tense. It is solar-led but not 100% renewable because natural gas generation and grid exchange remain part of the architecture.

Research status
Operational and still promoted by the owner as an evolving microgrid. Exact 2026 component inventory and state of health are not fully verified because available technical sources represent different build phases.
Historical classification
Building
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
38.29017, -122.50341
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Stone Edge Farm Winery Microgrid?

15 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Aquion

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Aquion Energy

Saltwater battery supplier for an earlier storage installation [1]

Organization

California Energy Commission

Public case-study and resilience-program reporting body [6][7]

Organization

Capstone Turbine Corporation

Supplier of the 65 kW natural-gas/hydrogen-capable microturbine [5][6]

Organization

DC Systems, Inc.

Microgrid controls supplier [3]

Organization

ESS Inc.

Iron-flow battery supplier [3]

Organization

Heila Technologies

Supplier of decentralized Heila IQ asset controllers and coordination software in the current owner architecture [5]

Organization

Ideal Power

Power-conversion equipment supplier [1]

Organization

Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Interconnecting utility at the single point of common coupling [5][7]

Organization

Plug Power / ReliOn

Supplier lineage for the three PEM fuel-cell hives [5][6]

Organization

SimpliPhi Power, Tesla, Aquion Energy, ESS Inc., Sony, LG Chem, and Redflow

Battery suppliers represented across different documented build phases [5][6][8]

Organization

Stone Edge Farm

Project owner and host [3]

Organization

Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards & Winery

Host, owner, operator, and demonstration sponsor [4][5][6][7]

Organization

Wooster Energy Engineering

General contractor and microgrid systems integrator during the documented buildout [6]

Organization

Wooster Engineering Specialties

Microgrid developer and general engineering contractor [1]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
32 [1]
Storage
350 kWh Aquion Batteries [1]
ESS iron-flow battery
10 kW / 60 kWh, 480 VAC, three-phase [3]
Earlier Aquion battery bank
14 × 25 kWh modules; approximately 350 kWh [1]
Earlier solar array
32 kW PV [1]
Site and electrical topology
16 acres, 25 buildings, seven service entrances, and a 480 V three-phase bidirectional copper loop with a single point of common coupling on Wyatt Road; a lower-voltage Critical Grid supports high-priority loads [5]
Current-tour generation snapshot
Twelve arrays, 553 panels, and about 160 kW of PV; 65 kW microturbine; and three fuel-cell hives totaling about 28 kW. The tour describes more than 600 kW of total microgrid capability [5]
2018 case-study capacity
1.185 MW cumulative project capacity, including 368 kW PV, 65 kW microturbine, 28 kW fuel cells, 324 kW of battery power, and a 400 kW electrolyzer; this dated accounting scope differs from the current owner tour [6]
Largest documented battery
Tesla Powerpack rated 250 kW/475 kWh with a 250 kW Dynapower bidirectional inverter, capable of grid-forming operation [5]
Other owner-tour storage
SimpliPhi 23.8 kW/45 kWh; Aquion 16 kW/100 kWh; Sony 2.4 kW/9.6 kWh; SimpliPhi AccESS 5.7 kW/10.5 kWh; and LG Chem RESU 10 kWh, plus a 120 kW/26 kWh high-voltage SimpliPhi system described as being installed [5]
Hydrogen system
Three ReliOn hives with four 2.33 kW modules each, about 28 kW total; on-site electrolyzer reported as 400 kW and up to 12 kg H2/day in the 2018 case study; compressed storage includes 48 one-kilogram cylinders plus about 200 kg bulk capacity in the owner tour [5][6]
Thermal utilization
65 kW microturbine CHP with two 500-gallon thermal tanks and a 10-ton lithium-bromide absorption chiller; owner reports up to roughly 90% overall efficiency when recovered heat is used [5]
Load range
Owner tour cites roughly 15 kW base nighttime demand and maximum demand around 100 kW [5]
Demonstrated islanding
Ten days of islanded operation during the October 2017 wildfire; a later CEC report says the site could conduct normal operations independently in 2018 [7]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Microgrid controller

DC Systems, Inc.

Communicates with the ESS iron-flow battery over Modbus and dispatches it for site operating needs. [3]

02

Iron-flow battery

ESS Inc. — Iron Flow Battery

10 kW / 60 kWh unit with a 480 VAC three-phase interface. [3]

03

Power conversion

Ideal Power

30 kW multi-port power-conversion system coupling the earlier solar and Aquion storage installation. [1]

04

Point-of-common-coupling switchgear

Emerson ASCO — 7000 Series ATS / ASCO MAC switch

Automatic transfer and microgrid switchgear separate the property from PG&E and coordinate islanding; Schweitzer protective relaying is also identified [5]

05

Microturbine CHP

Capstone

65 kW natural-gas/hydrogen-capable turbine with heat recovery, two 500-gallon thermal-storage tanks, and a 10-ton Yazaki lithium-bromide absorption chiller [5][6]

06

Lithium-ion battery

Tesla / Dynapower — Powerpack

250 kW/475 kWh battery with 250 kW grid-forming bidirectional power conversion [5]

07

Lithium-ferro-phosphate batteries

SimpliPhi Power

23.8 kW/45 kWh system with SMA Sunny Island; 5.7 kW/10.5 kWh AccESS with Schneider power electronics; and a 120 kW/26 kWh high-voltage system described in the tour as being installed [5]

08

Aqueous sodium-ion battery

Aquion Energy / Ideal Power

Eight 48 V M-Line units, 16 kW/100 kWh, with a 30 kW Ideal Power converter in the current-tour snapshot. Earlier descriptions of about 350 kWh reflect a larger prior configuration [5][6]

09

Iron-flow battery

ESS Inc.

10 kW/60 kWh Energy Warehouse reported in service since early 2016 [8][6]

10

Additional distributed batteries

Model not publicly disclosed

Sony 2.4 kW/9.6 kWh with 6 kW OutBack inverter; LG Chem RESU 10 kWh with 9.8 kW SolarEdge inverter; CEC's dated inventory also included Redflow equipment [5][6]

11

Hydrogen production and storage

Areva H2Gen / Giner; Millennium Reign reporting lineage

Three-stack PEM electrolyzer; the CEC case labels the electrolyzer 400 kW with output up to 12 kg/day. The owner tour lists compressed cylinder and bulk storage but does not repeat the 400 kW rating [5][6]

12

Hydrogen fuel cells

Plug Power / ReliOn

Three hives, each with four 2.33 kW PEM modules, coupled through Siemens Sinamics DC/DC conversion and a 30 kW Ideal Power inverter [5][6]

13

Controls

Heila Technologies — Heila IQ

Edge controllers at assets communicate with a central coordinator; a prior project phase used DC Systems controls [5][6]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • General

    During daylight hours, solar PV provides energy for the buildings and charges the batteries. [1]

  • General

    This project is the first commercial deployment of the two companies’ technologies alongside one another for an energy storage application. [1]

  • Control architecture

    Heila IQ nodes sample local assets at up to 10 Hz and coordinate through supply-and-demand bids that can weight response time, state of charge, carbon impact, and cost. The architecture covers portions of six solar arrays, eleven battery/inverter combinations, four pumps, fuel cells, the microturbine, electrolyzer, and HVAC. [5]

  • Islanding

    Automatic transfer equipment opens the utility point of common coupling, and grid-forming storage establishes local voltage/frequency. The lower-voltage Critical Grid/UPS tier preserves the most sensitive loads through transitions. [5][7]

  • Hydrogen pathway

    Surplus electricity can produce compressed hydrogen for later use in PEM fuel cells, while the microturbine is described as hydrogen-capable. This is long-duration/fuel storage experimentation; no recent round-trip-efficiency or annual hydrogen-throughput dataset was located. [5][6]

  • Thermal integration

    Microturbine exhaust heat charges hot-water storage and drives absorption cooling, so simple electrical-efficiency comparisons understate the intended CHP value when vineyard/winery thermal loads can use it. [5]

  • Capacity chronology

    The 2018 CEC report aggregates progressive installations from July 2013 through June 2018 and reports 1.185 MW. The owner's current technical tour uses a smaller PV snapshot and notes some devices as 'being installed.' Asset ratings must retain their date/scope instead of being summed into a false current total. [6][5]

  • Renewable-content caution

    Solar and stored solar are central, but the farm also imports/exports through PG&E and operates a natural-gas microturbine. Owner statements that the farm's carbon footprint is below zero were not accompanied by a recent independently audited energy or emissions balance. [4][5]

  • Current-status evidence

    The winery currently presents the microgrid as active and evolving, and the technical-tour site carries a 2026 copyright. That establishes continuing program presence, but not the in-service state or remaining capacity of every battery chemistry and experimental hydrogen component. [4][5]

Provenance

8 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-02-28

  2. [2]
    Aquion Press Release

    blog.aquionenergy.com · Archived source · captured 2021-02-28

  3. [3]
  4. [4]
    Microgrid

    Stone Edge Farm Estate Vineyards & Winery · Primary source

  5. [5]
    Stone Edge Farm Microgrid Technical Tour

    Stone Edge Farm Microgrid · Primary source

  6. [6]
    Microgrid Analysis and Case Studies Report

    California Energy Commission and Navigant Consulting · Primary source

  7. [7]
    Microgrid Resilience and Planned Islanding Case Study

    California Energy Commission · Primary source

  8. [8]

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