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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Why microgrids have a vital role in sustainable power generation
29/11/2023
8 min read
Feature
How can microgrids help solve updated electricity grids, ready to handle the intermittent supply issues of solar and wind renewable energy? Gordon Feller, Global Fellow at The Smithsonian Institute, explains the latest developments in the US.
Why are microgrids so important to our planet’s sustainable future? The answer is straightforward science. As more clean energy (such as solar and wind) is needed, we must accommodate more intermittency in the flow of electrons since the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Transmission networks, the backbone of our electricity grid and a major component of every economy’s critical infrastructure, should be ready for this. But they are not.
If the big electricity grids now in place can’t handle the extra clean power which is ready to flow in from solar and wind projects, then microgrids can pick up the slack while new investments in grid modernisation take hold.
Transmission networks typically operate at very high voltages (69 kV to 765 kV), allowing for much more significant power flow than would be possible at distribution class voltages (typically 5 kV to 25 kV), as power flow capacity increases with the square of the voltage.