Martin County Health Department: 91 kW Solar and 198 kWh Battery Storage

Solar and battery storage in Eastern Kentucky took on a critical role in Inez, Kentucky, where the Martin County Health Department now runs on a 91.02 kW solar array paired with 197.5 kWh of battery storage. Designed, engineered, and installed by Solar Energy Solutions (SES) and completed in 2025, the two-building system lowers the department’s energy costs and gives the facility layered backup power for the moments when the community needs it most.

A Public Health Mission That Can’t Go Dark

Martin County Health Department serves residents across Martin County from its facility in Inez, Kentucky. Its work ranges from clinical services, testing, and vaccinations to environmental health programs such as food service, septic system, school, and public pool inspections. The department also leads emergency preparedness training for its own staff, local agencies, and residents, preparing the community for everything from natural disasters to disease outbreaks.

That preparedness role shaped the goals for this project. A health department that helps coordinate emergency response needs its own building to stay operational when the grid goes down. As a public agency, every dollar saved on utilities is a dollar that stays in service to the county. The department was also adding EV charging at its garage, so the design had to account for that new electrical demand from day one.

The System: Two Buildings, Two Storage Solutions

SES designed the project as two coordinated systems built on 222 NE Solar NESE410-54MH-M10 modules. These 410W monocrystalline PERC half-cell black modules carry a 12-year product warranty and a 25-year linear power warranty.

Main building: A 71.34 kW array of 174 modules is mounted on K2 Systems racking and feeds two SolarEdge SE17.3KUS inverters and one SolarEdge SE10KUS inverter. The array is paired with a 50 kW/184 kWh Fortress Power eSpire Mini battery, which runs demand management programming during normal operation and supplies backup power during outages. An 800-amp automatic transfer switch moves the building into backup mode, and the facility’s existing generator remains in place as a separate layer of protection behind the battery.

Garage: A 19.68 kW array of 48 modules connects to a Tesla Powerwall 3, which includes an integrated 11.5 kW inverter, along with a 3.8 kW Tesla inverter. The 13.5 kWh Powerwall 3 provides backup power for the garage, and the Tesla monitoring platform gives staff clear visibility into production and battery performance.

Why Solar and Battery Storage in Eastern Kentucky Makes Sense for Public Health

A standard grid-tied solar array lowers utility bills, but it shuts off during a grid outage for safety reasons. Adding storage changes that equation. For a public facility, solar and battery storage in Eastern Kentucky delivers value on several fronts at once.

• Lower operating costs. The system was sized to cover roughly 117% of the facility’s projected annual electricity use, including an estimated 10,000 kWh per year for new EV charging.
• Demand management. The Fortress battery helps manage peak demand on the main building, which can reduce demand-based charges on a commercial utility bill.
• Layered resilience. Solar, battery storage, and the existing generator work together, so critical circuits can stay powered through an outage without relying on a single source.
• Long-term stability. Producing power on site reduces the department’s exposure to future utility rate increases over the life of the system.

Results and Environmental Impact

The system is projected to produce 98,681 kWh in its first year. Applying the NE Solar module’s 25-year linear power warranty, which starts at 98% of rated output and declines by no more than 0.55% per year to 84.8% in year 25, lifetime production comes to more than 2.3 million kWh.

Using the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator with the regional emissions rate for Inez, Kentucky, that clean energy is projected to avoid nearly 4.47 million lbs of CO2 over 25 years. That impact is equivalent to:

• Taking more than 5.15 million miles of driving off the road
• Avoiding more than 2.25 million lbs of coal burned

For a department whose mission is protecting community health, this solar and battery storage in Eastern Kentucky project extends that mission to the air the county breathes.

Whether you manage a public facility, a nonprofit, or a business, SES can help you plan solar and battery storage in Eastern Kentucky that lowers costs and keeps critical operations running. Explore more of our commercial solar and battery storage projects, or contact SES today for a free quote.