In the ‘bad-old-days’ a select group of utilities generated electricity using the cheapest way they knew, which was fossil fuel. It gradually dawned on us that coal and natural gas were bad for the environment, but heck what could we do? Diesel generators were more of the same, but then came solar. Today we are entering a brave new world of distributed energy resources, and batteries for storage.
What Are Distributed Energy Resources Exactly?
Distributed energy resources are small electricity demand / supply hubs, which may operate independently. Although they may also reciprocally connect to utility grids to exchange energy. They are increasingly likely to incorporate storage battery facilities, especially if they rely on renewable energy.
Those energy resources may range from one-off home systems, through several interconnected ones, to commercial operations. They typically rely on diesel generators, solar arrays, wind farms, and battery energy storage. However, the larger ones supporting utility grids may use hydro storage, or natural gas too.
- These standalone systems can operate off-grid for a design period.
- But they may also, or wholly serve to strengthen utility grid resilience.
In both instances, many of them use storage batteries as back up, or for reserve power when the renewable energy resource is down, for whatever reason.
How Flexible Are These Alternative Energy Sources?
In a word, incredibly so, compared to very large electricity power stations. Distributed energy resources can be almost any size, from individual dwellings through to large wind farms and solar arrays. They are coming on line fast. In fact Energy-Gov estimates one-third of all U.S. solar installations are domestic.
A lively market has developed for bilateral energy trading on utility grids. North Americans are gradually understanding smaller, micro-grid installations could keep them going during severe storms. Renewable energy is making remarkable progress, but we are not there yet, no not yet by far.
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