There is no longer any room for doubt — our climate is changing and it’s largely our fault. Thankfully, the sciences have done what they do best and provided us with several short- and long-term measures to help us stop and eventually reverse the trend of ever-higher average temperatures across the globe.
The microgrid is almost certainly one of the most exciting and revolutionary examples of climate-fortifying technology. It could, if we get serious about it, help us meet the two-degree temperature rise benchmark scientists recommend for staving off planetary-scale disaster. These are the stakes.
What Are Microgrids and Why Have They Become Necessary?
Industrial technologists and climate scientists have found a consensus on one of the first steps required to prevent catastrophic changes across our planet brought on by our overreliance on fossil fuels — hook everything up to the electric grid.
Does it sound deceptively simple? It’s nearly as straightforward as it sounds. Consider the energy needs of the average family home. It already requires electricity to power the refrigerator, the lights and many other appliances. It might have a natural gas hookup for a fireplace insert or a propane tank outside for the range. That’s a lot of redundancy and a lot of waste.
Technologies that rely on combustion, including our vehicles and those big, ungainly heating oil tanks in our basements, are wasteful and dirty up the atmosphere. So, we have to shift toward hooking up everything that requires energy to function to the electric grid.
Of course, that’s where things get complicated. Enter the microgrid.
Along with this newfound dependence upon a larger, more interconnected electrical grid comes a host of other requirements, not the least of which are:
- A greener electric grid powered by renewable energy
- A more stable electric grid that delivers uniform supply even during peak demand
- An electric grid hardened against predictable and unforeseen natural disasters, such as hurricanes.
Hurricane Maria is known to have caused the most widespread electrical blackout in this history of the United States. So we know it’s not enough that our electrical grid becomes more sustainable — it must also become more resilient and more predictable when it comes to output.
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