Army Corps awards nearly $27 million for a solar and battery microgrid at White Sands Missile Range

The design-bid-build job pairs a 600 kW solar array on parking carports with a battery rated 500 kW and 2,000 kWh, 670 kW of propane generators and a microgrid controller, Microgrid Knowledge reported. The crew will also run new distribution lines, fiber and security infrastructure. ABM said the feeder-level system will let the installation cut loose from the utility and keep power on to buildings in the cantonment area.

AACON General Contractors of Louisville, Kentucky, brings the federal general contracting side and RavenVolt the microgrid engineering, according to ABM's Nov. 3 announcement. The work falls under the Defense Department's Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program, or ERCIP. The Corps set up a $2 billion contract vehicle for ERCIP projects and this spring named 14 qualified firms, among them Parsons, Hensel Phelps, Tutor Perini and Honeywell. Five of the 14 are small-business joint ventures, AACON-RavenVolt among them.

White Sands already has a microgrid. In February 2025, HSGS-Ameresco finished a $10.9 million system with 700 kW of solar, a 500 kW gas-fired generator plus 500 kW of batteries that keeps four water wells pumping through outages, the Army reported. That project helps White Sands meet the Army's requirement that installations run 14 days without civilian power and water.