To maintain a utility’s capacity to provide precisely the right amount of electricity to its customers, large-scale lithium-ion batteries are now being added onto renewable power sites to store that power and distribute it as needed. Renewable energy sources sometimes generate more electricity than is needed in real time. Increasing the amount of renewable energy in the grid will also require a lot of batteries. Implementing these changes, he says, “may also challenge transmission system stability, and system operators need to run detailed simulations to ensure they have sufficient resources available to respond to large events and maintain frequency.” Improving the grid to accommodate more renewable energy also means coordinating among utilities in neighboring areas to balance demand and supply, and creating better forecasts of solar and wind output to anticipate generation levels over the course of days, according to Ben York, senior project engineer with the Integration of Distributed Energy Resources program at the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit that conducts research and development on electricity. In addition to demand-side management tools like variable pricing for electricity use, new forms of smart grid information technology are being implemented by utility companies to balance out this two-way flow of energy. This means that the power coming into the grid from such sources on very sunny or very windy days represents a supply of excess energy that can be redirected through the grid to where it’s needed most. Solar and wind farms can feed into the main energy grid, and small-scale installations can be plugged directly into homes. Renewable energy generation facilities- particularly solar and wind - are more widely distributed. The grid was built under a one-way model, in which power is generated at centralized sites and sent through distribution lines to end users. But upgrading a vast infrastructure made up of thousands of individual utility companies and a web of high-voltage transmission lines is complicated. Integrating renewables into the electricity grid has obvious environmental benefits. “That’s a priority for everybody who understands the science.” “The basis of the transition is the need to get off carbon-based energy and stop emitting greenhouse gases,” Jimison says. Click to expandĮlectricity producers and the utility companies that distribute that electricity to households and businesses throughout the country are working to make it easier for renewable sources to provide that power, according to John Jimison, executive director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid, a non-profit advocacy group focusing on modernizing the grid. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly. But as renewables become a larger part of the overall pool of electricity generated in the U.S., the “grid” - the network of electricity generation, high voltage transmission lines, substations and distribution lines that bring power to homes and businesses - is being updated to accommodate it. As part of the Ensia Answers project, in which readers suggest topics to be explored in future articles, the growth in renewable energy prompted reader Cynthia Pannucci to submit this question: “Financial support of renewable energy technologies in the U.S. This trend has many environmentalists wondering about the future of energy in the U.S. From large-scale wind farms to single panels installed on rooftops, renewable energy has gone from novel to commonplace. That’s a jump up from just 9 percent a decade ago. comes from renewable sources like wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower and biomass, amounting to 64 million of the 411 million megawatt-hours (MWH) of total electricity generated in July 2019, according to the U.S. Roughly 15% of the electricity generated in the U.S. If you have a question or a topic that you think needs more coverage, please email us at energy is on the rise. OctoEditor’s note: This story was the result of a reader question.
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