Pond Ingenuity Winter 2021

Meck Island Net Zero Microgrid. Image Courtesy of Hannah Solar Government Services "...facility heat load in the building determines the air conditioning size, often at a cost of five times the LED costs and even on parity with the Building-integrated photovoltaics price..." Connecting Grids However, it is not enough to simply focus on generation for a net zero electric grid, we must recognize the ability for transmission to be part of the solution. In order for a consistent source of net zero renewable energy to be available, according to Energy News Network  8 , it has been proposed to link the western and eastern electric grids in the continental US with a renewable transmission direct current (DC) line, connecting solar farms and metropolitan loads from California and the southwest to wind farms in the upper Midwest and the metropolitan loads of Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. Such a line brings peaking solar electricity in California where they currently have a problem of too much solar in the middle of the day to meet early evening peaking loads in the Midwest. It also allows for nighttime wind generation in the Midwest to meet early evening peaking loads in California after the sun has set. Coupled with utility scale energy storage, it would yield near 100% capacity factor renewable energy for organizations along the length of the line. And, being a DC line means that it would take up half the permitted right of way of traditional AC transmission and could very easily piggyback along our nation’s interstate highways. 8  https://energynews.us/2020/11/24/west/power-from-the-prairie-aims-to-link-west-coast-sun-with-midwest-wind/?utm_source=energy+news+network+daily+e- mail+digests&utm_campaign=349a19128b-email_campaign_2020_05_11_11_46_copy_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_724b1f01f5-349a19128b-89253023 9  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-lab-aims-to-prepare-the-u-s-electricity-grid-for-a-climate-transformation 10 Solar Energy Industries Association, Wood Mackenzie, US Solar Market Insight Full Report, December, 2020, Page 21 Our experience at Pond is that getting the permitting and right-of-way in place for such a line is the major part of the effort. So, if we are able cut that requirement in half, we have made such a line that much more cost-efficient. The challenge still is getting utilities, states and the federal government to coordinate such a line. What is needed is a type of EnergyStar voluntary program to encourage businesses to subscribe for the zero- emission power, once it is flowing. On those voluntary commitments could such a line be built. Focusing on Energy Demand Zeroing out the supply-side of the electric grid is not enough, we must also focus on the demand side. In 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act authorizing state regulatory commissions and utilities to offer time-of-use rates on the electric grid, which would, in theory, cause the market for demand response programs to ramp-up. While utilities have invested heavily to put in smart meters over the last decade, the provision of time-of-use rates for the masses by the utilities could be said to have been way under-implemented. While there is new technology to help control energy use, the desire to use it is missing. According to Shale Kann, Managing Director of Energy Impact Partners  9 , “There are now 10 million smart thermostats in the US. How many are being used to help the Grid?” Kann asked. “Very few. Most customers don’t have incentives to do that.” But, after 16 years, that may finally be changing as more utilities offer time-of-use rates to their customers. Duke Energy in South Carolina is even offering a time-of-use, solar net metering rate, where customers with solar, and especially those with batteries, could time the use and the delivery of energy from and to the electric grid  10 such that energy they sell to the grid could fetch 15 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while energy they procure costs just 9 cents. Imagine not only saving more money by not using electricity during the peak, but, being able to make more money by selling it to the grid during the peak. Storing Renewable Energy Energy Storage is the lubricant that greases the wheels for this kind of opportunity, and it helps balance out the intermittence of renewable “If we can quickly decarbonize the electric grid and electrify everything else, we get to net zero everywhere the electric grid goes.” 10 Pond | www.pondco.com