Doug

Distributed Energy Systems (DES) are the central nervous system of the green energy revolution, which is why we’re so big on the thinking behind it, the tools that are modernizing it, and the widespread embrace of the systems for reducing carbon outputs, improving resiliency, and more. Much more.

Here are just some of the reasons we’re so high on DES.

Enhanced Energy Efficiency and Reduced Transmission Losses

• Proximity to Consumption: DES generates power close to where it is consumed, reducing the need for long-distance transmission. This minimizes energy loss, which typically occurs when electricity travels over long distances through power lines.
• Localized Management: Localized production allows for better energy management and utilization. This increases overall efficiency compared to centralized power generation systems that often have to account for a broader range of variables and potential inefficiencies.

Integration of Renewable Energy Sources

• Facilitates Renewable Adoption: DES is often based on renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and small-scale hydropower. Their modular and scalable nature makes it easier to integrate these renewable sources into the grid.
• Support for Intermittency: Distributed systems can more effectively manage the variability and intermittency of renewable energy sources. By having a network of distributed energy resources, fluctuations in power generation (e.g., from solar or wind) can be balanced more effectively.

Increased Grid Resilience and Reliability

• Resilience to Disruptions: DES can enhance grid resilience by diversifying energy sources and decentralizing power production. This reduces the impact of natural disasters, cyberattacks, or technical failures that might cripple a centralized grid.
• Microgrids and Energy Independence: Distributed energy systems can operate as microgrids, which can function independently of the main grid during outages. This capability provides reliable power to critical infrastructure and communities, enhancing energy security.

Cost Savings and Economic Benefits

• Reduced Infrastructure Costs: By generating power locally, DES reduce the need for significant investments in centralized infrastructure and long transmission lines. This can lead to lower overall capital and maintenance costs.
• Local Economic Development: Investment in distributed energy systems can boost local economies by creating jobs related to the installation, maintenance, and management of these systems. It also allows for greater community involvement and ownership of energy production.

Scalability and Flexibility

• Modular Implementation: DES is highly scalable. These systems can be implemented on a small scale (e.g., for individual homes or businesses) and gradually expanded, which makes them adaptable to different settings and demand levels.
• Flexibility: DES offer the flexibility to integrate various types of energy resources, including solar, wind, biomass, and even small-scale traditional energy generation methods, thus catering to a diverse range of energy needs and preferences.

Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Lower Carbon Footprint: By focusing on renewable sources and improving efficiency, DES help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact compared to conventional fossil fuel-based power plants.
• Promotion of Sustainable Practices: They encourage the adoption of sustainable energy practices and raise awareness about energy consumption and conservation among consumers and communities.

Technological Innovations and Advancements

• Smart Grids and IoT: The advancement of smart grid technologies, combined with the Internet of Things (IoT), allows for better monitoring, control, and optimization of distributed energy systems. This integration supports real-time decision-making and enhances overall grid performance.
• Energy Storage Solutions: Innovations in energy storage technologies, such as batteries and thermal storage, complement distributed energy systems by storing excess energy and ensuring a steady supply when renewable sources are not actively generating power.

Empowerment and Energy Democracy

• Consumer Choice and Control: Distributed energy systems empower consumers by giving them more control over their energy production and consumption. This can lead to greater energy independence and autonomy.
• Community Engagement: They promote community-level involvement in energy generation and management, leading to more democratic and participatory energy systems. This can foster a sense of shared responsibility and stewardship for energy resources.

Wrapping Up

To wrap up things, it’s clear that DES represents a dramatic shift from more conventional, centarlized energy models. By decentralizing these services, DES improves energy efficiencies, resilience, and sustainability. We also believe it will dramatically reduce costs, particularly over time as innovations continue and adoption rates grow.

As the world continues to prioritize reducing carbon footprints and increasing energy security, the role of DES in shaping the future of energy is expected to grow significantly.

A new market survey claims global spending on solar panels will reach $273.15B by 2029, up from $187.69B in 2023, representing a CAGR of 6.45%.

This growth is being driven by a number of factors, including:

• Numerous providers of hardware, design, reliability, and service entering the space
• Continued advancements in innovation
• Government subsidies to drive adoption and reduce carbon output
• Growing adoption rates by consumers and corporations alike

Geographically speaking, Asia-Pacific is leading the charge. Home to many of the solar industry’s design and manufacturing giants, regional governments are also requiring stringent new emissions reduction standards.

The European theater also is a major driver of solar adoption, sparked by government spending, environmental commitments by consumers and businesses alike, and infrastructure investments.

North America is also a major player, with strong economic growth, corporate expansions, and new business development all driving higher solar adoption rates.

While the survey credits green initiatives and technology advancements for solar growth, it cautions that high upfront costs and price volatility could jeopardize some of its forecasted growth. It notes that the costs of the raw materials behind solar – glass, plastic, timber, and aluminum – have dramatically risen over the past few years.

 

 

Eager to support public and private sector organizations focused on meeting the nation’s rapidly growing demand for distributed energy services, the Dept. of Energy (DOE) has released a list of tools and services the agency will make available facilitate their efforts.

With an eye on clean energy production for the massively expanding AI industry, the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board has released its report, ‘Powering AI and Data Center Infrastructure.”

The report includes 16 recommendations detailing ways DOE can support industry’s response to growing demands for reliable, safe, affordable and sustainable power. Among other things, the reports takes into account using AI for modeling power dynamics, the need for operational flexibility in data center and utility operations, and innovating generation and storage technologies.

“A nation powered by clean energy is a goal being brought into reality by the Biden-Harris administration as the country achieves a manufacturing boom not seen in decades and expands new industries, like data centers and AI,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “Today we are generating record amounts of carbon-free power – with more projected as the Investing in America agenda comes into full swing….”

Resources included in DOE’s Electricity Demand Growth Hub:

• • 2024  Future of Resource Adequacy outlines a wide array of solutions to address increased electricity demand on the nation’s power grid while continuing to reduce emissions.
  • Clean Energy Resources to Meet Data Center Electricity Demand provides additional context about data center load growth during the clean energy transition and lays out the broad portfolio of energy technologies and enabling solutions available today to meet rising demand.
  • Pathways to Commercial Liftoff Topic Brief: How Clean Energy is the Solution to Rising Electricity Demand briefly summarizes the opportunity to unlock hundreds of gigawatts of system capacity by accelerating full commercialization for multiple clean energy technologies, advanced grid solutions, and virtual power plants (e.g., aggregated distributed energy resources) covered by DOE’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff reports.  
  • How AI Can Help Clean Energy Meet Growing Electricity Demand summarizes the first set of milestones achieved by DOE’s voltAIc initiative, which is focused on building AI-powered tools for environmental permitting to help speed up energy deployments. 
  • Voices of Experience: Decarbonization Strategies and Grid Planning shares insights from a 2024 summer series for utilities focused on the unique regulatory environment, electricity market, and geographical dynamics to consider for carbon reduction strategies.
  • Electrification Resource Library includes a catalog of 300+ DOE and market resources related to electrification, including news articles and resources on electricity demand growth, data centers, electricity solutions, and more.

In case the world still hadn’t caught on to the power and potential of microgrid technology, the world’s largest off-grid, solar-powered microgrid is beginning to take shape along Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.

Aptly named the Red Sea Project as part of the Saudi kingdom’s ambitious SaudiVision2030 initiative, the microgrid will encompass 28,000 square kilometers and power critical parts of the Red Sea City, including 50 hotels with 8,000 rooms along with more than 1,000 residential properties.

Built by Chinese industrial giant, Huawei, the complex will feature a 400MW solar farm tied to a 1.3GW storage system, making it the first of its kind as well as the world’s largest microgrid.

Because the project is powered entirely by solar energy, the complex will enable the city to meet its energy needs without depending on existing power grids.

The sheer scope and scale of the Red Sea Project microgrid is expected to inspire more interest in micogrids, especially as it establishes new standards for island-only power generation and storage capabilities.

This article is a reprint from The Washington Informed, dated May 15, 2024.

Brian McLaughlin, an experienced leader with more than 26 years of professional experience in the nonprofit, public and for-profit areas, has co-founded a business, PlanitWorks, that operates in the booming green energy industry.

“I want to drive the clean energy revolution into all communities,” said McLaughlin, a Silver Spring, Maryland resident. “I want solutions that work for the community, and I want solutions that work for the planet.”

McLaughlin is a founding partner and CEO of PlanitWorks, an end-to-end energy solutions development company specializing in sustainable housing and renewable energy projects on Tribal (Native American) lands and communities of color. Previously, McLaughlin served as the CEO or executive officer at five separate companies.

With the global thirst for energy expected to double by 2050 (driven by AI, EVs, and data centers), experts believe renewable energy is going to take center stage in helping to meet those demands.

Facing historic challenges in both the demand for energy as well as top-down commitments to reducing energy pollution, utilities recognize that renewable sources are their best bet for slaking those energy cravings without adding to environmental woes. In fact, some experts believe the renewable energy market could triple in size before this decade is out.

The rapid growth in demand is unprecedented, says Rebecca Kujawa, CEO of NextEra Energy Resources. “There is no escaping the fact that these are very large numbers and numbers that I don’t think any utility across the industry has seen before.”

While EVs have been blamed for much of this demand, recent declines in EV sales have taken a bite out of those projections. What isn’t up for debate, however, is the anticipated needs of data centers, particularly as they answer the call of AI systems exploding across the planet.

Climate change is also expected to drive historic growth in the demand for cooling services, particularly now that historic heat waves are becoming the rule versus the exception.

In an age when missions to Mars are actually in the planning stages, it seems difficult to imagine that nearly two-thirds of Africa’s population lack access to reliable power and the innumerable benefits that come with it.

Yet in the same way the advent of cellular technology enabled the African continent to simply skip cumbersome, costly landline infrastructure and move directly into the mobile era, so too is microgrid technology enabling a growing number of communities to bypass conventional electrical grids and produce their own direct or supplemental energy.

“From Nigeria to Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar and beyond, millions of people are now benefiting from increased access to clean, reliable and locally produced electricity,” writes Kathy Hitchens for Microgrid Knowledge.

The result? The microgrids are providing these communities with opportunities to:

• Grow economically
• Reduce poverty
• Improve access to clean water
• Deliver reliable Internet

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that last year Africa added a record 4,400MW of renewable power-generating capacity. They did this thanks in large part to dramatic reductions in the cost of solar panels and wind turbines. Rooftop solar is helping providing modest amounts of power to homes, clinics, and businesses.

For example, beginning with its Smart Power for Rural Development in India program, the Rockefeller Foundation has been at work finding ways to place microgrids in impoverished regions. By connecting with local businesses willing to erect large solar farms, development of microgrids is made easier. And by delivering reliable power to mostly agrarian enterprises, whole economies spring to life.

“If you want to drive the productive use of electricity and move people up the economic ladder, then you need a minigrid,” says Deepali Khanna of the Rockefeller Foundation. In India, Khanna said that once minigrids (another name for microgrids) were in place, local farmers began adopting other technologies such as smartphones for weather forecasting and irrigation pumps for crops.

What seems abundantly clear is that the the advent of cheaper renewable energies, evolving microgrid technologies, and the commitment of forward-looking organizations are combining to bring reliable, sustainable energy to Africa along with the myriad opportunities that come with it.

Few recognize that heat pump technology has been around for nearly two centuries. Fewer still know this technology was invented in large part to improve energy efficiencies and help the planet as part of that deal.

Yes, the very same technology that governments, utilities, and property owners are using to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions has pretty much been an ecological superpower since the days of our great-great-great-great-grandparents.

During the middle part of the 19th century, huge volumes of salt brine needed to be boiled to produce salt for landlocked nations such as Austria. Because these were the days before fossil fuels and railways, local wood was used for the fires. The result was something of an ecological disaster, because entire forests were felled to boil the water.

In 1856 Peter von Rittinger began to tinker with many of the same mechanical principles underlying modern heat pump technology, reducing salt production power requirements by an astounding 80 percent. We picture countless trees silently applauding Rittinger’s efforts. Humans would do some saluting as well, with Rittinger ultimately was knighted for his invention.

Rittinger’s biography, as one writer put it, “reads like a Victorian novel, and his invention was a text-book example of innovation triggered by scarcity.” One wonders what he’d think of his invention’s role today in helping to curb catastrophic climate change. Instead of saving forests, he may be saving humanity itself.