Is Renewable Energy a Solution to Eliminate Summer Energy Blackouts?

Please welcome back Jane Marsh, a regular guest contributor to the 21st Century Tech Blog. Jane has posed a question of particular relevance considering we are currently going through a summer of record heat, extreme weather events, and wildfires here in North America, Europe, and Asia. I recently read that blackout events combined with heat waves can more than double heat-related mortality. So what are the technology answers to extreme heat? 

In this posting, Jane describes the challenges and solutions that the U.S. and other countries are considering or implementing to sustain the power grid during extreme heat events that cause system-wide failures. Governments,  utilities and consumers are becoming power aware as we feel the insidious creep of global warming. 

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Global warming is causing rising atmospheric and ocean temperatures, extreme weather events and natural disasters worldwide. As a result, power outages called blackouts are more frequent than ever before. During this summer, these power outages combined with excessive heat pose a significant risk to human health. And the strain on utilities is leading to a search for solutions to harden what is deemed to be failing grids everywhere on the planet.

What Causes Summer Blackouts?

Things have gotten hot in North America this summer. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. has been at risk for blackouts during peak demand, particularly in New England and west of the Mississippi River.

Changing demographics in the U.S. aren’t making things easier as more Americans migrate to the south and southwest, in other words, the hottest and most energy-pressured states. It’s like watching the proverbial lemmings jumping off the cliff. Needless to say, the utilities responsible for delivering power and maintaining the grid are feeling the strain.

The power grid in the U.S. is showing its age in recent years with extreme weather events happening in communities from Texas to the South and Western states. The nation’s crumbling electricity infrastructure is struggling to overcome what nature is delivering, from snow and ice storms to massive hurricanes and extreme heat waves. 

The U.S. isn’t alone in battling climate change. Many other countries are seeing their electrical grids impacted by these changing conditions. Asia has endured excessive heat and grid failures. Nearly 300 cities in China reached record-high temperatures of 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in the summer of 2022. In Guangdong province’s capital Guangzhou, where the area recorded 37 to 40 Celsius (98 to 104 Fahrenheit) for a week, blackouts were a common occurrence.

That same summer London in the United Kingdom experienced its hottest day on record at 40.3 Celsius (105 Fahrenheit), exceeding 2019’s record readings. The UK’s National Grid Electricity System Operator avoided outages by importing power from Belgium. It paid a premium, 5,000% more than normal for the electricity to keep lights and air conditioning running.

Hardening the Electric Grid

Some of us live in climate zones where we can open a window for ventilation or use a ceiling fan to cool a room. Ceiling fans alone can ease electricity demand when operating because they allow users to set thermostats to 2.2 Celsius (4 Fahrenheit) warmer to remain comfortable. But what happens when the power goes out?

According to a recent White House statement, 70% of U.S. grid transmission lines are 25 years past their prime. The U.S. is no exception. For example, about one-third of the European grid is more than 40 years old. Canada’s grid on average is 32 years old.

Utilities that rely on grid performance efficiency to help them deliver electricity from thermal, nuclear, hydro, wind, and solar power plants need a reliable infrastructure that can handle heat waves and sudden spikes in energy demand. Growing renewable infrastructure imposes new challenges on utilities for several reasons that include power variability, and home-generated rooftop solar capable of feeding power back into the system.

In 2022, approximately 24% of U.S. energy generation was derived from renewable sources. Meanwhile, wind and solar contributed 22% of Europe’s electricity generation.

The Necessity for Microgrids

Microgrids are increasingly becoming part of the energy mix. Separate from the primary grid, microgrids operate locally and independently. They boost resilience and enable quicker responses to power demand spikes and outages.  

Microgrids are heavily invested in renewable sources of energy. In California, the state has established the $200 million Microgrid Incentive Program (MIP) to combat excessive heat demand and wildfires. MIP has been designed to significantly benefit underserved communities by ensuring continuous, clean power for those deemed most vulnerable.

Microgrids are popping up across the globe. In  Costa Rica, where 98.6% of energy generation comes from renewable sources, the country has partnered with the microgrid company Sunshine Energy to harden grid resilience, creating jobs, and boosting the economy. This has allowed Costa Rica to meet the needs of its rural population ensuring reliable connectivity and lower utility costs.

Customer Power Generation Enters the Mix

The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts 100 million homes worldwide will install rooftop solar panels by 2030, up from 25 million households today. The growth in rooftop solar is proving beneficial in reducing blackouts with most systems remaining connected to the main grid as a backup. Many utilities participate in net-metering receiving excess power to the grid from rooftop panels producing more than homeowners consume.

Solar batteries are also proving to be game changers for the grid improving reliability and resilience. They store excess electricity from rooftop and utility solar power. Homeowners can tap into solar batteries to provide overnight power. And utilities can rely on them to provide supplemental electricity during peak demand periods without having to build out more non-renewable generation capacity.

Renewable Energy and Grid Pressures

Using renewable energy to give peak traditional power generation a break is already proving to be successful. Here are some examples:

• Kauai, Hawaii, is using more renewable energy and battery storage to go along with its thermal oil power generating source to meet peak demand. Increasing amounts of solar power have fundamentally changed how the island gets its electricity. In 2010, 92% came from burning oil. Today increased solar has reduced operational loads for oil use to 10%.
• At Fort Carson near Colorado Springs, the U.S. military base integrated renewable energy battery storage systems to offset the high cost of grid-delivered electricity. The utility was charging $18 per kilowatt-hour per month. Adopting renewable energy battery storage achieved a 60% grid energy usage reduction by May 2020.
• A gunfire incident in Moore County, North Carolina disabled two electrical substations in December 2022 leaving 45,000 customers without power for three days. Then the state’s main provider, Duke Energy suffered a major outage on Christmas Day affecting 500,000 customers. Now the state is developing microgrids that include solar and battery storage systems to improve resiliency.

Finally, in a study published in 2021 in the journal Renewable Energy that looked at grid stability in 2050 across the U.S., it noted that future blackouts could be avoided entirely by transitioning to 100% clean, renewable energy with significant cost reductions for consumers of up to 57% per Kilowatt-hour. The transition would also produce cleaner air, a healthier population as a result, and 4.7 million new jobs.

With global warming no longer speculative science, a more resilient grid combining renewables and microgrids will stop needless deaths when the power goes out. As António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, stated last month “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.” Grid infrastructure that can hold up to today’s and tomorrow’s climate events needs a robust renewable solution now.