For the past seven years UMN Morris has hosted student interns and scholars from the Muenster University of Applied Sciences (MUAS), in Muenster, Germany, to work on sustainability projects in the community.
During 2022, the city of Morris installed solar photovoltaic (PV) systems on four public buildings.
In spring 2023, members of the Morris Model partnership, including UMN Morris, city of Morris, UMN Southwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (Southwest RSDP), and UMN Institute on the Environment Climate Smart Municipalities asked the question: Would other communities in Minnesota benefit from learning more about the solar installations in the city of Morris?
In April 2023, Felix Luecken arrived from Germany and began his work with the city of Morris. The goal of the project was to develop an easy-to-read report that explained how the solar PV systems were performing on city buildings, including details about the energy production from each PV system and the total energy use of each building.
