How Microgrids are an Ideal Energy Solution for Rural and Remote Communities

Please welcome back Jane Marsh with this her second contribution to the content here at 21st Century Tech Blog. Jane is an environmental journalist and Editor-in-Chief of Environment.co. Last month she wrote about geothermal energy. Today she is tackling microgrids.

Microgrids represent one of the five top priorities that the energy industry needs to tackle to modernize grid infrastructure for the challenges of the 21st century. Yesterday those five priorities were featured in an article that I invite you to visit after you read what Jane has written.

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Communities around the world are seeking sustainable energy solutions. Whether we are talking about large cities, small towns, or rural and remote communities climate change is driving all of us to seek ways of producing and distributing energy that leaves us with better environmental outcomes. Rural communities and isolated remote communities are no exception and face a unique set of additional challenges because they often have far fewer people, are poorer, lack local infrastructure, and are of little interest to utilities and power producers because the cost of delivering energy to them is far more expensive per person than more densely populated areas.

Microgrids, however, can be the right solution for rural and remote energy production and distribution. As their name suggests, these are grids designed to power smaller population groups. 

Providing More Power to Rural Areas

In the United States, there are at least 60,000 people who have no access to electricity. It is not a large number but poses for this population a barrier to participating in the modern world. You cannot find a job working from home without electricity and Internet access. You cannot visit your doctor virtually. You cannot use electricity to light and heat your home. 

But with microgrids that can operate autonomously from the main power grid, rural and remote communities can do everything that people living in big cities can do leading to a better quality of life for those living there.

A Toronto, Canada, based company is a microgrid solutions provider. Called Clear Blue Technologies, it offers energy-as-a-service to rural and remote communities. In Nigeria, it is installing microgrids and distributed energy solutions to help rural communities to access energy and telecommunications services. Its service model manages these installations remotely at a low cost delivering clean renewable electricity while giving rural users access to the Internet. For Nigerian remote communities, it brings them into the 21st century. That’s why in March of this year, Clear Blue was awarded a contract covering 120 telecommunications sites across the country with plans in the next five years to grow that number to 1,060. Talk about levelling the playing field for these communities to give them access to clean energy and cellular phone services.

Encouraging Clean Energy

We don’t think of electric power as being a big polluter but it is. In the U.S. it accounts for one-quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions because natural gas and coal are used to generate it. In 2021, natural gas and coal-fired power plants produced 60% of all the electricity generated in the country. 

Microgrids don’t need to burn fossil fuels to generate power. Instead, they can use renewable energy to power rural and remote communities. And microgrids can be combined with distributed renewable energy solutions like rooftop solar panels on homes. Some microgrid providers help low-income families with these installations. The combination lowers unneeded energy use, saves money and contributes to net-zero emissions from energy-producing sources.

This is advantageous for First Nations in the remote northern communities of North America, which today heavily rely on diesel fuel for generating electricity. The costs associated with transporting these fuels, particularly in winter are extremely high. One community, the Kiashke Zaaging Anishinaabek, a member of the Ojibway Nation, has worked with Ontario Power Generation to create a microgrid which has helped reduce diesel energy use by 30%.

Another example of microgrid implementation in remote communities is EDF Renewables, which in 2021 signed a 20-year agreement to provide power to remote locations in the Amazon rainforest. Iquitos, a local city, has exclusively used diesel for electricity generation but with this initiative will see its usage drop by 40%-50% eliminating 2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Preventing Damaging Power Outages

Powerful storms can be incredibly disruptive in rural communities. When Hurricane Irma hit Florida in 2017, evidence showed power restoration took longer in places where rural electric cooperatives provided electricity. In addition, the U.S. grid infrastructure is showing its age with extreme weather events now accounting for up to 73% of all outages.

It is bad enough when these outages happen in cities, but in rural areas when the power goes out it can be particularly damaging. When the power goes out at livestock farms, prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures can harm or even kill the animals, costing operators thousands in lost revenue. The larger impact on society is that food prices go up.

With microgrids and distributed energy systems, however, rural communities can at worst quickly restore power or at best keep the lights on when the main grid suffers interruptions. Remote communities that implement microgrids are not subject to being in a queue to compete to get power back on when utilities focus first on large cities.

Recent Developments From the Inflation Reduction Act in the U.S.

Power transitions and infrastructure improvements are expensive, but the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, signed by President Biden on August 18, 2022, incentivizes utility and energy providers to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. The act recognizes microgrids as one of the solutions providing investment tax credits. This should make microgrid controls less expensive and for rural and remote American communities it provides an incentive for local power companies to implement them. 

There are new rules for renewable energy tax credits. Where previously, rebates were only available to entities that paid taxes and could receive reductions, now rural electric cooperatives can receive direct payments to help to fund local transitions to clean energy, lowering the costs for them and for customers.