Can Batteries Make Solar Work for Local Government?
The town that delivers more solar power per customer than any other in the country used batteries to get the job done. Could the same model work for other small towns and counties?
Going solar is hard. It took 40 years to reach 1 million solar array installations in the U.S., and the technology still makes up less than 1 percent of the country’s power supply.
But maybe there’s a way to make solar work more easily, in small towns and counties that own their own utilities. Take Minster, Ohio — a tiny village of fewer than 3,000 people that may have figured it out.
The village recently grabbed national attention when the Smart Electric Power Alliance reported that it provided more watts of solar power per customer than any other utility in the nation, whether private, investor-owned or public. And a few other towns and counties are looking into whether they can follow Minster’s lead.
