Helping the Grid Go Green: The Deadline Approaches

The move away from fossil fuels and toward full electrification has been, like any ambitious endeavor, a mix of successes and challenges, an ongoing negotiation between high-minded ideals and practical realities. The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, New York State’s landmark piece of legislation on climate change, requires the state to have 70% renewably sourced electricity by 2030, a zero-emission electric grid by 2040, and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels) of no less than 85% by 2050. To some, 2050 may still sound like a long way off, but to those who are actively engaged in achieving these goals, it can often feel like the day after tomorrow.

One of the chief challenges is simply the negotiation between supply and demand. Electricity isn’t used consistently throughout the day. The demand shifts between urban and suburban areas, residential use versus industrial. Power demand just keeps moving around. This, of course, is in addition to the everyday variables posed by very hot days and very cold ones.  And while there has been a significant increase in solar and wind solutions, their dependence on climatic conditions doesn’t afford the consistency to make them, on their own, a long-term solution. They need something else.

That something else is looking more and more to be battery energy storage systems, configurations of giant batteries that reduce reliance on fossil fuel generators, cutting emissions and contributing to climate goals, and have already shown themselves be a cost-effective alternative to smaller gas “peaker” plants that only switch on when demand spikes. They may well turn out to be the essential supplement solar and wind solutions have been looking for.