New Course Bundle: Microgrid Essentials with Mayfield Renewables

As battery storage costs drop and grid reliability concerns grow, microgrid projects are moving from the margins to the mainstream. The broader energy storage market is surging – the U.S. installed a record 57.6 GWh of new battery storage in 2025, a 29% jump over the prior year, and deployments are projected to reach 70 GWh in 2026, according to SEIA. As more batteries get deployed, more microgrid opportunities follow. The opportunity is huge, but so is the learning curve. Microgrids involve multiple technologies, multiple stakeholders, and multiple operational goals, and that complexity demands real expertise.

That’s why we partnered with Mayfield Renewables to bring you Microgrid Essentials, a three-course bundle that walks you through the arc of microgrid project development. In five hours of instructor-led training, you’ll go from understanding what a microgrid is and why it matters, to evaluating feasibility, to designing the energy storage systems that make it all work.

What Are Microgrids?

A microgrid is an electrical system with loads and distributed energy resources within a defined boundary that can disconnect from the wider grid and operate independently – a process called islanding. When the grid goes down, a microgrid’s solar, battery, generator, or other resources can keep critical loads powered.

That backup capability alone makes microgrids valuable. Customers are increasingly seeking resiliency solutions as outages become more common, from storms and natural disasters to utilities proactively shutting down power lines during high-risk fire conditions through public safety power shutoffs (PSPS).

Backup power is just the starting point, though. Microgrids also unlock financial opportunities like demand charge reduction, time-of-use arbitrage, and grid services programs such as demand response. As Mayfield Renewables instructor Tyson Bittrich explains in the first course, the real power of microgrids lies in value stacking – using the same battery capacity to serve multiple operational goals at once, turning a resilience investment into one that also generates ongoing financial returns.

What Makes Microgrids So Complex?

If you’re coming from a rooftop PV background, you might be used to running a quick feasibility analysis during a sales call. Microgrids don’t work that way.

As Mayfield’s senior engineering consultant Zach Snyder puts it, the flexibility of microgrids is exactly what creates their complexity. They come in a wide range of sizes – from a subset of loads within a single facility to multi-building campus networks. They can incorporate different technologies: solar PV, lithium-ion batteries, generators, and even wind or micro hydro. They serve different functions depending on the project goals, the utility territory, and the available incentive programs.

All of this means that back-of-the-envelope sizing doesn’t cut it for most microgrid projects. You need to understand the loads, model the system performance, and align stakeholders around clear goals before you break ground. Feasibility studies are how you manage that complexity, and it’s important that they happen early in the development process.

What’s Inside the Bundle

An Introduction to Microgrid Systems (2 hours)

Taught by Tyson Bittrich and Zach Snyder, this course lays the groundwork. You’ll learn what defines a microgrid, explore the three core value propositions (backup power, energy bill savings, and grid services), and get into the specifics of islanding, load design, load shedding, and microgrid controls. The course also covers the concept of value stacking and how to think about allocating battery capacity across competing operational goals.

An Overview of Microgrid Feasibility Studies (2 hours)

Led by Zach Snyder, this course tackles the question that comes right after “what is a microgrid?” – namely, “should we build one here?” You’ll learn why feasibility studies are essential, what questions they’re designed to answer, and how to conduct them. Topics include stakeholder alignment, resilience and economic performance modeling, load data collection and analysis, and an introduction to the software tools used in feasibility work. The course also includes a sample feasibility report from Mayfield Renewables so you can see what a professional deliverable looks like.

Design Considerations for Energy Storage Systems (1 hour)

Taught by Mayfield Renewables founder Ryan Mayfield, this course shifts from planning to design. You’ll review common system architectures for energy storage, solar-plus-storage, and microgrid systems. Ryan walks through available components, key design parameters, and the practical lessons his engineering team has learned from real-world installations. The course also covers how different use cases (resiliency vs. grid services vs. both) affect your equipment selection and system design.

Who Is This Bundle For?

This bundle is built for solar professionals expanding into storage and microgrids, engineers and designers working on distributed energy projects, project developers evaluating microgrid opportunities, and anyone who needs a practical, well-rounded understanding of how microgrid systems work from concept through design.

No prior microgrid experience is required. The first course starts with the fundamentals. If you already have some background, the feasibility and design courses will deepen your understanding and give you tools you can apply immediately on real projects.

Ready to get started? Enroll in Microgrid Essentials today!