Application In Action:
Commercial Solar & Custom Microgrid Solution
Sustainable Development Project Overview:
1.05MW Solar & Microgrid Development Across Multiple Commercial Buildings
Staar Surgical is a California-based medical manufacturing firm specializing in the design, development, and production of implantable eye lenses that help patients reduce or eliminate their reliance on glasses and contact lenses.
The company operates three facilities across Southern California, including a 75,000-square-foot headquarters in Monrovia, a 30,000-square-foot facility in Lake Forest, and a 10,000-square-foot location in the City of Tustin.
As a high-energy-use manufacturer, Staar Surgical faced escalating electricity costs and significant operational risk due to grid instability.
Weather-related outages and power interruptions frequently disrupted production- resulting in costly downtime and the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in materials. Reliable, uninterrupted power was critical to maintaining productivity, protecting inventory, and safeguarding the company’s bottom line.
In addition to energy resilience, Staar Surgical sought to advance its corporate sustainability goals. As an environmentally conscious organization, the company engaged MREP CA and Bedford Energy to help implement a renewable energy strategy aimed at reducing its carbon footprint by at least 30%, while strengthening long-term operational efficiency.
MREP CA Impact:
MREP CA with the Bedford Energy Team designed and implemented a custom solar microgrid and backup energy system across Staar Surgical’s three facilities. The comprehensive solution included two large-scale solar installations and a fully integrated energy management strategy.
In total, the project deployed 2,168 Tier 1 Phono Solar high-efficiency 450-watt panels, generating 1.05 megawatts (MW) of clean energy capacity across all locations.
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Monrovia Facility (Headquarters):
Because the Monrovia site already housed an existing 500 kW natural gas generator, Bedford Energy designed a hybrid microgrid system that combined:
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1,591 Phono Solar panels
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500 kW of battery storage
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500 kW of existing generator capacity
This integrated microgrid delivers 716 kW of solar generation, ensuring uninterrupted power during grid outages while significantly reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
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Lake Forest & Tustin Facilities:
For the remaining sites, Bedford Energy Team installed a combined 578 solar panels, including:
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168 panels at the Lake Forest facility
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409 panels at the Tustin facility
Together, these installations provide clean, distributed energy generation tailored to each site’s operational needs.
Project Results:
At project completion:
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Staar Surgical achieved its corporate renewable energy and carbon reduction goals
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Grid resilience and energy reliability across all facilities were significantly improved
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Operational downtime and energy-related financial risk were reduced
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Long-term energy costs and exposure to utility volatility were mitigated
Workforce Development Impact:
This project also served as a hands-on workforce development initiative. Across all three facilities, MREP CA facilitated paid, on-the-job training opportunities for recent graduates of GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles’ Installation Basics Training (IBT) Program- providing real-world experience on commercial-scale solar and microgrid systems.
By integrating sustainable development with workforce pathways, this project exemplifies how MREP CA’s Application phase delivers measurable environmental, economic, and community impact—advancing both clean energy infrastructure and equitable access to green careers.