The beauty of a microgrid is its ability to customize an on-site sustainable energy system to meet the exact needs of the host site. Leading vendors, such as Ameresco, use this customized approach, choosing from an array of vendors for energy storage and controls, to meet each project’s unique energy needs and climate objectives.

Although the majority of microgrid capacity deployed in the future will likely still adhere to this compelling value proposition, there is a counter movement that instead embraces a more modular approach. Moving closer to a plug-and-play model, these vendors look to streamline the design and delivery of microgrids. These modular microgrids might be common in future deployments, though they will tend to be much smaller compared to traditional microgrids serving a college campus or a large remote industrial mine. It is estimated that such modular systems, whether grid-tied or not, cannot exceed 4 MW in size. This trend away from complexity and intense customization for every microgrid enables more standardized financing because portfolios of similarly scaled microgrids address the perceived risks inherent in one-off projects. This standardization enables […]