Hurricanes Highlight The Potential Of Battery-Backed Renewable Energy Microgrids

The inability and unwillingness of FEMA and the federal government to still not be able to provide help and aid to large swaths of Puerto Rico primarily speaks to the ignorance, incompetence, and racism of our President. His refusal to deploy the capabilities of the US military in order to help the US citizens of Puerto Rico is illustrative of his cruelty and, again, racism. As Rachel Maddow's show earlier this week showed, the excuse that the roads were still unpassable was simply hollow and false as a media crew was able to drive unimpeded into towns in central Puerto Rico, towns where there had been no sign of FEMA or aid actually arriving.

But beyond the problems with our President, I think it is also clear that FEMA was institutionally totally unprepared to deal with a significant recovery effort in an area that was not part of the mainland of the Untied States. FEMA's plans have always revolved around having the ability to bring in significant external resources to a hard hit area while also relying heavily on the remaining infrastructure, capabilities, and personnel in the effected area. That plan is doomed to failure when dealing with a small island and, as we see, even a relatively large island in the age of global warming. To do so effectively, requires the massive resources of the US military.

With this in mind, there are steps that remote areas and island locations can take in order to better protect themselves from the catastrophic failure of their infrastructure. One if those ways is with renewable energy battery-backed microgrids. Indeed, most of the areas in the US most likely to get hurricanes are the same areas that get lots of wind and sun. According to a recent Bloomberg report, "Growing demand for more resilient power supplies will spur $22.3 billion of global investment in battery-backed local energy systems over the next decade, according to Navigant Research." Navigant expects these battery-backed microgrids to expand from just under 250 megawatts today to nearly 15 gigawatts in the next decade.

Much of this investment will be helped along by the decreasing cost of both increasingly efficient batteries and the lower cost and easier availability of solar and wind technology. Said one researcher, "The storms helped raise awareness of what’s available". Indeed, the leading firms in the industry, including Tesla, are already shipping their equipment to Puerto Rico and look at the island as a possible proving ground for their technology.

In addition to the Trump administration's efforts to impede renewable energy wherever possible, perhaps even slapping tariffs on imported Chinese solar panels, another significant problem for these microgrids is just how they can be safely and, more importantly, legally cut off from the main power grid when necessary. We saw this problem in Florida where solar powered homes were apparently not legally allowed to disconnect from the grid and power their own homes. Having microgrids connected to the main grid when workers are trying to restore power to another section of the grid creates a safety issue as well. That will probably take political action and, more importantly, political will as it will obviously be opposed by the major power companies.

As solar panels also become lighter and more flexible, the dream scenario would be to have the ability to move the panels out of harm's way as much as possible before an approaching storm and then redeploy them as soon as possible afterward. The stored battery power could help make it through the storm and the quick redeployment afterward would restore power much faster than today. Obviously, that ability is yet to come.

As with all things related to renewable energy in the US, the technology is there if we have the foresight, the will, and the investment to use it most advantageously. But, as the FEMA response has shown, foresight and will to buck the corporate interests have not been a feature that our government has shown in many years.