Project Case Study: Senior Living
Rooftop solar across multiple buildings, paired with 250kWh of battery storage: a commercial solar and storage project built to cut operating costs on a campus where the power quietly has to work, all day, every day.
600kW
Rooftop Solar
250kWh
Battery Storage
Multi
Building Campus
A senior living community is a 24/7 operation. Heating, cooling, lighting, kitchens, laundry: the loads never really stop, and resident comfort cannot be compromised to manage a utility bill. That makes electricity one of the most stubborn operating costs in the category.
This National City complex needed two things at once: a meaningful, durable reduction in energy costs, and a design that respected the physical reality of the campus: multiple buildings with concrete S-tile and mixed roofing materials that most installers would rather avoid.
The answer was a 600kW rooftop system spread across multiple buildings, paired with 250kWh of battery storage with backup power capability.
Full EPC delivery: engineering, procurement, construction, permitting, utility interconnection, and commissioning under a single contract.
Rooftop arrays distributed across the campus rather than concentrated on one structure, matching generation to the site's roof real estate.
Battery storage with backup power capability. For us, batteries are a financial decision first. Backup is the bonus, not the pitch.
Elevated racking engineered for concrete S-tile and mixed roofing materials, a mounting solution chosen for the roofs the campus actually has.
Concrete S-tile is unforgiving: it cracks under foot traffic and does not accept standard flat-roof mounting. The design used elevated racking systems suited to S-tile and the campus's mixed roofing materials, instead of forcing a one-size-fits-all product onto the wrong substrate.
The 250kWh battery was engineered into the system rather than bolted on afterward, with backup power capability included. Under NEM 3.0's reduced export compensation, storage that shifts solar energy into the hours the campus actually uses it is more compelling than ever. See our breakdown of NEM 3.0 for commercial solar.
Building on occupied senior housing demands clean staging and disciplined crews. Keen's in-house C-10 electrical crews, state-certified Journeymen and Apprentices, self-performed the work under our EPC model: one contract, one team, one point of accountability.
We do not publish client financials. What we can show is the published market math for systems in this class, labeled for what it is:
Illustrative estimate: not this client's actual costs or savings
Your buildings, rate schedule, and load profile will produce different numbers. Clear numbers. No sales pressure. We will model your campus before you commit to anything.
If you operate senior living, assisted living, or any multi-building residential campus, this project shows that difficult roofs are a mounting-system problem, not a deal-breaker; that solar and storage can be delivered across multiple occupied buildings under one EPC contract; and that battery backup capability can ride along with a system whose primary job is cutting operating costs.
Keen Energy serves multifamily and campus properties across San Diego and Chula Vista. After commissioning, our O&M services keep systems producing for the long term. Coastal-adjacent sites in particular benefit from a real maintenance plan, as we cover in our guide to coastal commercial solar O&M.
No cost. No obligation. Just clear numbers on what solar and storage can do for your buildings.
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