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 challenges associated with providing reliable electricity without the benefit of traditional … [Read more...]
A utility-scale microgrid that uses energy storage has slashed the use of diesel fuel and allowed for up to 70 percent renewables to serve a Portuguese Island, Graciosa. The microgrid is made up of a 6-MW, 3.5-MWh battery system from Switzerland-based Leclanché, about 1.5 MW of wind energy, 3 MW of solar and an existing diesel system that … [Read more...]
Scale Microgrid Solutions is on a mission to make sophisticated microgrids as easy to deploy and finance as rooftop solar, said Timothy Hade, microgrid specialist for the company. “Our thesis is that at scale, microgrids have all sorts of great technical aspects that can make our total energy system cleaner, cheaper and more reliable. But … [Read more...]
Combined heat and power (CHP) provides year-round baseload energy in microgrids — something renewable resources don’t do. Yet solar PV now overshadows CHP in planned microgrid projects, according to a new microgrid database by ICF. “We see a lot of installed CHP systems in operating microgrids; it’s the largest technology in terms of capacity,” … [Read more...]
If you think of microgrids as mere backup power, think again. That was the message from panelists at Microgrid 2018 who described how microgrids serve the greater good in the U.S and abroad. Their projects include electrifying parts of Somalia, helping prevent brain drain in Africa and India, cost-effectively solving a utility’s peak … [Read more...]
Back in the 1890s, Samuel Insull, the founder of Commonwealth Edison, began providing energy in Illinois with renewables-based microgrids. More than a century later, Illinois is once again embracing renewables-based microgrids, with a handful of the most innovative microgrids now being developed and launched in Chicago. That was the engaging … [Read more...]
Researchers at University of California, Riverside, are testing a control system for a solar community microgrid that will decide how to dispatch assets — reaping energy savings and perhaps generating income. The Bourns College of Engineering research team is working on a power system for a microgrid located at the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe … [Read more...]
When the islanded microgrid at Stone Edge Farm near Sonoma, Calif., kept operating for 10 days in spite of the fires that caused outages nearby, the operators seized the opportunity to learn as much as possible from the surprises they encountered. The first surprise, of course, were the fires that struck suddenly, stoked by high winds and … [Read more...]
Two green microgrids operated by Duke Energy rode through a weakened Hurricane Irma with no hiccups, while customers experienced outages close by. The first, the Mt. Sterling solar plus storage remote microgrid, serves a communications tower located on National Park Service property in the Great Smoky Mountains on Mt. Sterling, Haywood County, … [Read more...]
In an effort to help commercialize microgrids, the California Energy Commission is analyzing lessons learned from nine microgrid case studies about projects that total 21 MW of peak capacity, with an average size of 2.25 MW. The case studies are detailed in a new report being prepared for the commission by Navigant Research. The state hopes … [Read more...]
Rocky Mountain Institute’s Andrew Allee describes a problem arising out of electrification in Nigeria. Minigrids are electrifying rural areas, but residents do not benefit if they cannot afford appliances.
An advanced microgrid offers both power supply and energy savings and derives value from each. And that’s just the start of the complex stream of economic benefits that can emanate from a microgrid; others include electric reliability, resiliency, energy security, emissions reductions and energy bill savings. This paper provides an overview of microgrid financing and how the microgrid controller can help your microgrid reach maximum return on investment.
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