Microgrid Impact and Our Future

The microgrid industry is coming to help the renewable energy industry. Right now, it is silently spreading in smaller areas. We are about to end 2020 and most people are still not educated about microgrids and their benefits. When it comes to energy sustainability and affordability, microgrids will play a big part to our daily lives in the upcoming future. What does microgrid mean to us and the future?

Currently, our problem with the power grid today is that it is not sustainable for the electrification of our civilization. This is an important matter and yet we do not have an open discussion about it. With the world switching to electric, energy companies will not be able to support the growing number of electric vehicles and many more. We are at risk of power outages. The other causes of power outages are typhoons, storms, lightnings, accidents and sometimes, power plants lack the output of generating enough electricity. Our dependency on electricity is about to grow at an unimaginable rate due to electrification. Can we stop electrification? We will not because this is the means in order to save the planet and mankind from the toxic world that the fossil industry is creating.

During high demand hours, peakers are activated. Peakers are power plants that runs to generate electricity in order to match the demand. During these times, the price of electricity is much higher.

It is awfully expensive to operate power plants that runs on fossil. We are used to the system of pumping oil from the ground, process them to be useable and then transport them to the power plants. The constant changes of oil price also make it economically inefficient for the consumers.

What is the role of microgrid? Microgrid can provide us power during peak hours instead of using the power grid when the price of electricity is more expensive. This is a significant amount of savings for any household. It can also be a source of free fuel for electric vehicles as well. What microgrid can also do is provide and secure a sustainable back up electricity when there is a power outage. These are the very few advantages of microgrids.

What are microgrids? The most common and effective microgrids today are composed by energy storages and solar panels. The sun is a free source of energy and many governments are subsidizing clean renewable energy companies right now to make them more affordable. We have come a long way with solar technology. Solar panels have become more efficient through the years and more technology will come out to gather solar energy.

Is Microgrid Real?

There are many different types and chemistries for energy storages being developed today and many are already in the market. We now have options for both residential and commercial infrastructures. I will provide 3 companies out of many as an example.

Tesla is known as an electric vehicle company, but they are also in energy solutions. The Tesla Powerwall is an energy storage solution that uses rechargeable lithium-ion formula for residential areas. It has 13.5KWh capacity. The Powerwalls are designed to store energy for consumption and sell excess to the grid. This means Powerwalls can help you save money but also profit from it. For commercial and utilities, they have megapacks which has more capacity for much heavy-duty use. A Megapack has 3MWh capacity.

EOS Energy Storage is also a company in US that develops zinc-air type energy storage solutions. These are bulky and high capacity energy storages. They manufacture energy storages that can scale up to 10MWh which are enough to power commercial buildings. They are also capable of scaling more than 10MWh for bigger projects that could be useful not only to big commercial industries but also for utility companies. This company can set up an energy storage and it could power a few houses or a small community.

RedEarth Energy Storage is an Australian company that sells energy storage solutions for costumers who want to be on-grid, off-grid or hybrid. This is one special company and possibly one of the best out there with flexible options for their costumers. They are very ideal for residential areas. They sell energy storages at the range of 3.3-26KWh. They designed their products easy for costumers to sell their excess energy to the grid that is the same as Tesla’s Powewall technology.

These companies have modular technologies. That means you can stack their packs and multiply their benefits. You have the option to buy the cheapest first module and eventually buy the 2nd one for double the result. The best thing about energy storage is that you can maximize your output and use the free energy you get to charge all your equipment that runs on rechargeable batteries. This ranges from your electric vehicles, electric vacuum, power tools and maybe a back up energy storage when there is a power outage. You can even sell most of the generated electricity to the grid if you decide to go on vacation.

Economic Effect

I remember buying my first HDMI cable for $45 to play my PS3 a few years back. It was the cheapest I can get at the time because some HDMI cables were also $60. Today, I can go to the dollar store and buy HDMI cables for just a fraction of my first HDMI cable purchase. I can also go to Walmart and buy a cable for $10-20. (I am talking CAD$) This is what we are about to see. The time will come when energy storage solutions and solar panels become more common and economical.

Solar roofs are being underestimated today but would you rather buy a house that has solar roofs vs one without? What if both houses have the same price? We now also have solar panels being installed on the ground.

Tesla has created solar roofs that looks like regular roofs. What could possibly stop them from creating solar walls in the future? Perhaps another company will.

I know people can argue that solar does not work in northern areas but, this will still reduce the yearly cost of energy bills at a significant amount. Solar do work in both summer and winter seasons. While solar is at its optimum performance in the summer, it will still generate energy in the winter season but at lesser rate. At any case of extreme weather, having an energy storage installed at home makes more sense as people tend to use more energy during these times.

I took some data from www.energyrates.ca and want to share some bits here just for kicks. The average Canadian household consume 11,135KWh/year (927.92KWh/month). In Ontario, the averages household consumption is 9500KWh/year (791.67KWh/month).

If a house can produce 9KWh/day and use this power during high demand hours, the savings will be significant.

Microgrid in Isolated Areas

Microgrid can power areas that are not reached by the main power grids. This can be a big difference for communities living in places that are far from the grid which often have problems with power. Microgrids can expand the areas where people may be able migrate.

One of the best things with microgrid is that we may be able to build rescue stations or check point infrastructures in many isolated places that can useful for 'search and rescue' missions. These infrastructures can be self powered and be used by authorities or for emergency purposes. This is just one idea.

Conclusion

Microgrids can really do many good things for us. While it can help us establish communities in many isolated areas, it can also help build emergency infrastructures but those are just possibilities out of many more. What microgrid will do for our future is make us all energy sufficient. It will make our homes less dependent on the power grids and can also make our home profitable. It would make more sense for homes to have their own energy storage solutions because it is more economical and the homes without these technologies would be more expensive to own over time.