Energy

To say that the United States electrical grid is outdated would be an understatement. Built largely during the first half of the 20th century, the grid has struggled to keep up with the explosion of electrical demand and technological advancements. It’s a patchwork system, plagued by inefficiencies, that was not designed for the diverse energy needs of the 21st century.

The electrical grid’s limitations aren’t just a theoretical problem; they have real-world implications. Extreme weather events, which are increasing in frequency due to climate change, pose significant risks. The recent Texas energy crisis, where a winter storm left millions without power, is a glaring example. Natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires also highlight how easily large sections of the grid can be knocked out, leaving communities without essential services for days or even weeks.

The centralized nature of the U.S. grid further compounds these issues. The existing structure often creates monopolistic scenarios where a single provider controls a regional grid, limiting competition and innovation. This affects not just pricing but also the motivation to transition to cleaner, more sustainable forms of energy. The end result is an inertia that is hard to overcome.

Off-Grid: A Viable Alternative

One promising way to address these myriad issues is through the adoption of off-grid energy solutions. Off-grid systems, often based on renewable energy sources like solar and wind, are modular by design, meaning they can be scaled up or down as needed. This provides a unique flexibility that the traditional grid simply cannot offer.

Local Energy Production

One of the most significant advantages of going off-grid is the potential for local energy production. Communities can produce their own electricity, thereby reducing the distance that electricity has to travel. This not only minimizes transmission losses but also reduces the vulnerability to centralized grid failures.

Decentralization and Competition

By encouraging off-grid solutions, we move towards a more decentralized energy model. This fosters competition and allows communities to tailor their energy systems to their specific needs, whether that be cost-efficiency, sustainability, or resilience.

Environmental Benefits

Incorporating off-grid energy solutions like solar panels and wind turbines can also significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By shifting away from fossil fuel-based electricity, off-grid systems offer an environmentally friendly alternative that aligns with global sustainability goals.

Legislative Reform: The Case for a New Category of “Local Energy Producer”

Given the clear advantages of off-grid systems, there’s an urgent need for legislative action. One such change could be modeled on the UK’s Electricity Act of 1989. A new category, “Local Energy Producer,” should be introduced, granting off-grid solutions a formal standing within the regulatory framework. This could involve tax incentives, grants, or subsidized loans to encourage local communities to invest in off-grid energy solutions.

The limitations and vulnerabilities of the U.S. electrical grid are not insurmountable problems; they are challenges that present an opportunity for transformative change. Off-grid energy is not …

Lord Deben, may have stepped down as head of the UK government committee on climate change (CCC), but the Brits have not heard the last of his pronouncements on the environment. The former Tory Cabinet Minister is emerging as a radical critic of the UK energy industry in general, and large-scale nuclear in particular.

In his first formal action since leaving the CCC, Deben has joined the likes of Swampy, and former Extinction rebellion spokesmen Rupert Read and Julian Thompson, in supporting the Climate Majority Project (CMP).

The new group has the same line on the climate emergency as Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil –  but does not follow the same tactics.

“The whole idea is a very good one,” he tells me in a phone call.  “You put together all those people who don’t want to hold up the traffic but do put climate change  first.   If it veers off the straight and narrow I will say so publicly.”

Rather than blockading the streets, the CMP calls on individuals to do the “many smaller things” needed to reduce pollution and carbon emissions.   That, says Lord Deben, includes contacting your MP.

In a speech to eco-activists at the Glastonbury Festival last month he demanded to know who of the 200 audience had contacted their own MP about climate change within the previous 6 months. “Out of the whole lot there were only three.  Its no good moaning about these things. You must make sure that all MPs of all parties cannot go to their surgeries without hearing a clear view of what can be done.  We can all do that. You cannot ask government to do things unless you have done all the things you can do yourself.”

He cites Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, her seminal 1962 book on the dangers of pollution, as a major influence on his leadership on the environment. He is also a religious man, a Catholic who sees his faith as tightly woven with his social calling.

On the day we spoke, the former Conservative Cabinet Minister was reacting to media stories commenting on the Uxbridge by-election. A narrow Tory victory over Labour was taken as evidence the public were not behind Net Zero policies like the London-wide ban on older vehicles .

“We are in a dangerous moment. In The Times today, for example, it says ‘don’t lets frighten people about climate change’ – but you know that behind that is a desire to avoid doing anything too difficult.”

Meanwhile the first Green council in rural UK was recently elected near Deben’s farm in North Suffolk.  But “it has just said its minded to turn down a planning application for a new solar farm.  It was almost the first decision they made!”

From his vantage point of 10 years at the helm of the CCC, Deben is probably the best-informed green …

Just as the world wakes up to the huge potential of natural hydrogen deposits, which could fuel the planet “for hundreds of years,” the UK government has dropped plans to replace home gas boilers with hydrogen alternatives.

The US Geological Survey concluded in April 2023 that there is probably enough accessible hydrogen in the earth’s subsurface to meet total global demand for “hundreds of years”. In May, Française De l’Énergie and researchers from GeoRessources made Europe’s biggest discovery to date, finding 15pc hydrogen content at a depth of 1,100 metres.

Domestic heating accounts for about 17% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and heating industry lobbyists have been pushing Hydrogen for years, but the UK industry is doing little to train the workforce in the complexities of new heating tech, or to prepare suitable products ready for the switch to hydrogen, originally scheduled by 2030 but now 2035.

Grant Shapps, UK energy minister, has indicated it is “less likely” that hydrogen would be routinely piped into people’s homes, amid growing concerns about cost, safety and perpetuating a reliance on fossil fuels.

However the use of fossil fuels continues to increase globally, and other carbon reduction techniques could be used.

Shapps said: “There was a time when people thought … you will have something that just looks like a gas boiler and we will feed hydrogen into it.”

He added: “It’s not that we won’t do trials. We will. But I think hydrogen will be used for storing energy.” Energy firms have insisted that hydrogen can be safe and engaged in concerted lobbying of both the government and Labour to convince them of its merits.

But the assurances have failed to convince people asked to take part in large-scale trials of the technology.

Meanwhile, there are limited incentives to encourage UK heating engineers to specialise in low flow temperature heating.  Dr Richard Lowes, senior associate, Regulatory Assistance Project, said the existing UK heating market had focused largely on combination boilers, as they were easier to install and quicker to fit than lower carbon systems because they need fewer design calculations during specification to ensure effective performance.

Systems such as solar thermal or heat pumps, which operate at lower flow temperatures, also require hot water storage, and heat loss from storage renders many systems useless.

By comparison, the price of boiler installation is much higher in Germany due to a focus by engineers in the country around designing system boilers which include combining hot water storage with functions such as weather compensation and other design considerations, Dr Lowes said. These features are intended to ensure a more efficient operation.

The existing UK installer market has two different types of HVAC engineer – those focused solely on providing and servicing simple gas or oil boilers, and design engineers looking at ensuring specific flow temperatures to increase the levels of condensing and also …

From 2010 onwards, off-grid.net ran stories about smart meters – like this one –  predicting that the meters would be an expensive failure.  Finally the world is  coming around to our way of thinking.

The introduction of smart meters was bungled pretty well everywhere – but especially in the UK and Australia – where weak and incompetent regulators were at the mercy of lobbyists, and any talented opposition was quickly hired by the Utility companies.

Even the Financial Times now agrees that the UK “has made dumb mess of (the) £13.5bn smart meter scheme.” Calling it a  “vital project for future of energy,” the FT says  it isone of the UK’s most expensive infrastructure projects, is four years behind schedule and is expected to exceed its initial budget.

The UK government announced in 2008 that energy suppliers would be responsible for fitting smart meters. Fifteen years later, 32mn of  57mn meters in UK homes and small businesses are smart devices. The government initially estimated it would cost £13.5bn for energy suppliers. Companies would recover their costs via customer energy bills and deliver £19.5bn in benefits. Those estimates were in 2011 money and do not account for recent high inflation.

The problems with the smart meter rollout have been many and varied. Some early models stopped working. Others displayed false and very high readings. They are not suitable for certain areas and buildings where there is poor mobile coverage. The list goes on. Ministers wanted the programme to complete in 2019. Even before the pandemic, the government admitted the finish date could be as late as 2024. Earlier this year, ministers consulted on revised targets for suppliers to install meters in at least 80 per cent of homes, and 73 per cent of small businesses, by the end of 2025.

Those in charge of smart meter programmes at energy suppliers think even the revised targets are unrealistic. Households that are inclined to make the switch have mostly already done so, they say. They are now faced with trying to persuade sceptical households or those that have yet to even engage with their inquiries. Adding to these difficulties, some smart meters will need to be updated when 2G and 3G networks are phased out in the early part of next decade.

Energy companies will increasingly be able to offer households with smart meters tariffs that are cheaper if energy is used off-peak. Smart meters could be made a requirement for all new homes. Remarkably that is not the case. They could also change the rating system for energy performance certificates to include smart meters, which could tempt homeowners seeking to sell their property.

Smart meters have become emblematic of the incompetence and inefficiency of the electricity industry both in the UK and worldwide.

But there is one further criticism that we did not think of in 2009, and in fact only occurred …

A new video from the US Department of Electricity has confirmed the Biden Administration is committed to keeping the existing Utility companies in business with huge subsidies.

The Inflation Reduction Act is trying to cement the present power structure in place – with large companies and the government owning and operating 90% of the country’s electricity supply, according to the new video. (Story continues after the video..)

But out in the real world huge numbers of food plants, server farms and community groups are doing their own thing. And in many cases they are unable to connect to the grid . There is a long waiting list in the USA, and in most countries – up to 10 years in some cases.

Meanwhile, people want to reduce their energy bills now, and control their own power supply. The best way is to keep a small foothold on the grid, and provide most of your energy locally.

These “microgrids” can and should trade directly with each other outside of the wider grid.

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Petaluma, CA – 18th Feb. A new kind of car charger could unleash massive growth in off-grid living. Enphase Energy has announced plans to introduce a system to transfer power generated by electric vehicles and home solar systems either into the power grid, or serve as emergency power sources (i.e. off-grid power).

Company officials say its new two-way charger, or bidirectional electrical vehicle chargers, is “expected to work with most electric vehicles.” It successfully demonstrated the system earlier this month and expects to introduce it next year.

With this news, Enphase has joined a short list of manufacturers vying for a share of this vehicle-to-grid (V2G) market that is forecast to reach $28.12 billion by 2026, according to IndustryARC.com.

Bidirectional charging not only allows direct current to alternating current transfers from solar panels to batteries using inverters, it can also reverse the process using AC-to-DC converters to send power from EV batteries back to a residence to keep lights and appliances running in emergencies, as well as return excess power to the grid for credits or refunds.

“The market for ‘green charging’ options is growing, and Enphase’s bidirectional concept has been well received,” said Mohammad Alkuran, Ph.D., senior director of systems engineering at Enphase. “More new electric vehicles are being designed to include two-way charging systems.”

IndustryARC analysts predict the global V2G market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.28% from 2021 to 2026, based on data showing that adoption of electric vehicles worldwide is affecting demand for EV charging infrastructures.

According to Sam Fiorani, vice president of Auto Forecast Solutions, while “bidirectional charging is still in its infancy, once it becomes mainstream it could revolutionize how EV owners view their vehicles. Instead of seeing their cars and pickups as separate from their homes, they could become more integrated into owner’s lives the way the telephone has become over the past decades.”

He said this technology is also seen as an integral part of the next wave of EV evolution — called V2X, the vehicle-to-everything world — that would interconnect transportation and power systems to transfer electricity stored in EV batteries to the grid, buildings, homes and other energy sourcing destinations.

Bidirectional electric-vehicle charging is part of a home energy system that can pull in power from the grid or from on-site sources such as solar panels to charge the vehicle. Properly equipped EVs and chargers can both receive power to charge the battery and send power from the battery to supply the home (vehicle to home, V2H) or the grid (vehicle to grid, V2G).

Bidirectional electric-vehicle charging is part of a home energy system that can pull in power from the grid or from on-site sources such as solar panels to charge the vehicle. Properly equipped EVs and chargers can both receive power to charge the battery and send power from the battery to supply the …

Power outages are even more costly to food producers and distributors than they are to the rest of us. Loss of refrigeration can mean loss of product. Safety rules often require shut-down and sanitizing even if the outage is short. So it’s not surprising that the food industry is turning to off-grid for more reliable electric supply.

Bluehouse Greenhouse, which specializes in sustainable indoor agriculture has hired developer Endurant to build an off-grid microgrid for the company’s 2.8 million square ft. greenhouse. The highly-automated glass structure will produce 50 million pounds of fresh produce annually.

Why go off-grid?

Bluehouse Greenhouse decided it was too expensive and too difficult to interconnect with the grid. “We had to think about what is the most resilient solution, where are we going to get the most benefit for our money and investment, and where are we going to have the most secure energy system,” said Ari Kashani, CEO and founder of Bluehouse Greenhouse.  Most microgrid developers find that grid-connection approvals significantly delay their projects. Will others follow the Bluehouse Greenhouse model?

And another two!

Most North American microgrids are grid connected, allowing them to take services from the grid or sell services to the grid as needed. But Taylor Farms is going entirely off-grid. The major California fresh food producer is building a standalone power supply in partnership with Bloom Energy, Ameresco and Concept Clean Energy.

Almond World, a refrigerated cold storage developer in California’s Central Valley, is another food facility that is taking its energy operation off-grid. The company has partnered with Origo Investments to build a facility in the Madera Airport Industrial Park that will include an off-grid microgrid designed and built by Scale Microgrid Solutions.

Bimbo Bakeries, the maker of such products as Thomas’ English muffins, Arnold bread, and Sara Lee and Entenmann’s pastries is installing microgrids to meet its sustainability goals. The company announced plans in 2022 to install microgrids at six manufacturing facilities over the next year with the help of GreenStruxure, a subsidiary of Schneider Electric.

And there’s more…

But its not just food companies which are going out on their own.  Sunnova  – the rooftop solar company – has gone into housing development to provide itself the rooves it needs.

It’s not always easy to develop community microgrids because they clash with the conventional utility model. So Sunnova has proposed a new approach — microutilities that operate standalone facilities in newly built California neighborhoods of fewer than 2,000 customers. The plan requires state regulatory approval.

Like Sunnova, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, sees outdated utility rules getting in the way of energy development, so it is creating its own utility company. The county utility will oversee multiple microgrids built to encourage economic activity and improve energy resilience.

Even Energy companies are going off the grid!

Entergy is among many existing utility companies investing in microgrids as part of its …