US Suffers Sharpest Rise In Poverty Rate In More Than 50 Years By Alex Tanzi and Catarina Saraiva, Chicago Tribune. The end of 2020 brought the sharpest rise in the U.S. poverty rate since the 1960s, according to a new study. Economists Bruce Meyer from the University of Chicago and James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame found that …
How Sweden Is Transforming Homes Into Power Stations
One example is in the city of Ludivika where 1970s flats have recently been retrofitted with the latest smart energy technology. 48 family apartments spread across 3 buildings have been given photovoltaic solar panels, thermal energy storage and heat pump systems. A micro energy grid connects it all, and helps charge electric cars overnight. The result is a cluster of ‘prosumer’ …
What is Transactive Energy and Why is it Important to Microgrids?
June 23, 2020 By Lisa Cohn The growing emphasis on using microgrids to generate revenue is leading to increased discussion of transactive energy…. The Monash paper, “Transactive Energy Market for Energy Management in Microgrids: The Monash Microgrid Case Study,” offers by way of example a microgrid being developed at the Australian university consisting of 20 buildings — a load of 3.5 MW …
Solar Minigrids Could Serve about Half of People in the World without Power: Report
July 2, 2020 By Ethan Howland, Microgrid Knowledge Minigrids can serve about half the people in the world — about 111 million households — who lack electricity by 2030 at a cost of $128 billion, although increased policy support is needed, according to a report. There are about 5,500 minigrids in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and small island nations, with some in Latin America, …
Renewables+Storage operating as virtual power generation get more renewables on the grid & can provide demand response automatically, eliminating the need for day-ahead planning, respond immediately to price signals, shift loads, or aggregate other distributed energy resources
Renewables + storage, operating as virtual power plants often cover a wider area than microgrids (which also island) and are flexible enough to expand or contract the area in which they operate, depending on market conditions. They serve the main grid, while microgrids don’t always provide services to the main grid. Virtual power plants can get more renewables on the …
Defense tapped the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association to apply a standardized, scalable microgrid planning tool to its facilities
Rural electric coops cover 60% of the US land mass, control 42% of distribution lines, and serve about 42 million customers. They do what other utilities do, but they are tax exempt, consumer-owned organizations set up by an Act of Congress in 1936. NRECA already has a good head start on the DoD work through its Open Modeling Framework project, which aims at enabling …
Researchers Propose Floating Microgrids and Virtual Power Plants Made up of Electric Boats
September 6, 2019 By Lisa Cohn, Microgrid Knowledge.com Electric boats may enable floating microgrids that could serve islands that have historically been powered by fossil fuels, according to a report from researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. By Igor Karasi/Shutterstock.com “Powering small islands with reliable, affordable and green electricity is a big challenge due to their dispersed …
Massachusetts Close to Finalizing a Clean Peak Standard. Good News for Microgrids
August 15, 2019 By Peter Maloney1, In Microgrid Knowledge. Massachusetts is close to implementing a clean peak standard that could bring wider opportunities for microgrid developers. It would also make Massachusetts the first state in the nation to implement the standard. By Love Silhouette/Shutterstock.com Based on the premise that renewable energy is good for the environment, but even better if used at the right time, …
Alaska, Model of Microgrid Development, Delivers Resiliency in Cold, Remote Conditions. Largest battery and microgrid in the country (2003) has prevented 784 outages since it was first installed.
July 16, 2019 By Lisa Cohn, Microgrid Knowledge, Alaska, Model of Microgrid Development, Delivers Resiliency in Cold, Remote Conditions Alaska’s challenges — cold weather and the high cost of delivered energy — are part of the reason the state is a model of innovative microgrid development, with the largest number of microgrids in the US, at 122. “This innovation flows from both the …
Schneider Electric Signs Agreement to Spur Minigrid Electrification in Nigeria
July 3, 2019 By Andrew BurgerLeave a Comment Schneider Electric recently signed an agreement with EM-ONE Energy Solutions, an engineering firm in Nigeria, with the aim of creating an industry ecosystem based on renewable energy-centered minigrids built or operated by community stakeholders. Local fruit market in Ondo, Nigeria. Photo by Jordi C/Shutterstock.com EM-ONE holds a contract to build 30 minigrids to power …