Value Stacking in Minster: A rural village leverages solar, storage and 4 revenue streams

Value Stacking in Minster: A rural village leverages solar, storage and 4 revenue streams

Grid-edge innovation of another order

With one award-winning solar-plus-storage project under its belt, the Village of Minster, Ohio — population, just under 3,000 — thought adding a community solar project to its portfolio would be the logical next step. That is, it seemed logical until Dannon, the town’s largest energy user and employer, decided to add a 280,000-square-foot distribution center to its already massive yogurt-making plant, and wanted to power it with clean, solar energy.

Minster tackled the challenge by switching the community solar project to commercial. The town is also planning a third project, with additional storage to create a microgrid and sell power into the regional wholesale electricity market.

Small town, big vision

In 2016, Minster became the first small public utility to pair solar and storage, and has served as a model for the kind of public-private partnerships that are needed to advance the combination of these technologies. The town’s story underlines why, sometimes, designing a successful community solar program means knowing when to put a project on hold, while staying focused on customers’ needs, shifting market conditions and the bottom line.

Find out more

Watch our video on Minster’s successful strategies for expanding its solar and storage projects here.

Value Stacking in Minster: A rural village leverages solar, storage and 4 revenue streams

Research report