Energy storage
The emergence of solar and wind energy is encouraging the development of energy storage technology – such as batteries – that gives utilities the flexibility of banking renewable energy for later use. Energy storage also can provide backup power and enable home and business owners to save money by storing energy from the grid when electric rates are low, as well as using the stockpiled energy during the day, when the rates are typically higher.
Smart energy home
Our home is becoming digitized with technology that helps us monitor and conserve energy. A smart thermostat learns our temperature preferences to provide optimal comfort without wasting electricity. LED lighting uses 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs, and lasts up to 50 times longer. Manufactures are rolling out dishwashers, dryers, ovens and other appliances that allow users to program them wirelessly to work only during times of low electricity rates.
Electric car charging
Electric cars can cost less to operate and emit no tailpipe emissions, unlike their gasoline siblings. Their prices also are set to fall as more automobile makers roll out new models and boost production. New charging station networks are cropping up to serve this emerging need, built not only by independent station owners, but also car makers and utilities. California, the largest electric car market in the country, was home to more than 5,700 nonresidential charging stations in 2014, and one of its major utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, has proposed to build a network to quadruple that number. Globally, charging station installations, at home or otherwise, are set to jump from roughly 1m in 2014 to 12.7m in 2020.
Microgrid
The marriage of renewable energy and batteries makes it possible to create the so-called microgrid: a mini, localized electric grid that can be independent or connected to the larger grid. A microgrid can serve a business, hospital or military base where generating and storing power onsite ensures an uninterrupted power supply when the larger grid suffers a blackout. A microgrid also can energize industrial operations and villages in remote corners of the world that have limited or no access to the main grid. Islands, where electricity is often expensive because power generation requires imported fuels, are good candidates for microgrids. Alcatraz, the former federal prison off San Francisco that is now a public park, is run on a microgrid. A microgrid is being installed on Necker Island in the Caribbean, owned by Sir Richard Branson, that will include solar and wind generation.
Carbon capture
Cutting carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel power plants is possible with a technology called “carbon capture and sequestration”, which uses a solvent to absorb emissions after the combustion process before they make their way into the atmosphere. The carbon dioxide can be compressed and injected underground for storage, or it can be sold and converted into fuels and chemicals. Finding markets for recycling carbon dioxide will help to make carbon capture technology financially feasible. Carbon capture technology can reduce emissions from power plants, which produce 40% of the carbon emissions in the country, by 80-90%.
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