Microgrids: A Major Step Towards Climate Resilience

In August of 2023, Hurricane Idalia wreaked havoc, plunging 300,000 homes in Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana into darkness. This sudden blackout not only disrupted daily economic and social life for over a week but also put thousands of lives at risk. It is during emergencies that the need for reliable electricity is greatest, whether to power hospitals and homes for the elderly, to provide clean water, or to enable communications for emergency workers. Yet, electricity is least reliable during extreme weather events, as 72 percent of all power outages in 2021 were caused by severe weather, leaving communities stranded when they needed electricity the most.

Climate change will not only intensify the severity of natural disasters but also increase their frequency, making power outages more common. The impact will be greatest on vulnerable, poor, and marginalized communities. These groups — who have been disproportionately affected by natural resource exploitation, economic disinvestment, and social or political exclusion — often experience unreliable electricity access and longer power outages than other communities. As one example, in Holbrook, Massachusetts, a small town outside of Boston, where the per capita income is below the state median and 30 percent of residents are people of color, residents experienced 1,650 hours of electricity outage per blackout event, more than triple the statewide average of 505 hours.

Increasing climate resilience, a community’s ability to bounce back from climate change events, will be crucial to help bridge this divide. International climate resilience efforts should create weather-resilient electricity supply chains to protect climate-vulnerable communities. Small, resilient, and climate-friendly microgrids provide just the qualities needed to supply communities with energy in emergencies. Unless the costs of installing these microgrids are reduced, however, large-scale adoption is unlikely.

Microgrids, also called “mini-grids,” are self-sufficient energy systems that can operate independently from a centralized grid system while supplying a distinct geographic area with energy. Their ability to run independently from the centralized grid, in island mode, increases their resilience to outages caused by natural disasters because it shields communities from power outages rooted in the centralized grid. In September of 2022, Hurricane Ian shut off power for 2.7 million Floridians, yet microgrid-powered communities, such as the 37 homes in Medley at Southshore Bay, kept the lights on. During the hurricane, the microgrid disconnected from the centralized grid and provided stored electricity collected from the neighborhood’s solar panels.

Since microgrids serve a smaller geographical location, they can be designed with communities’ specific resource availability in mind. While the Medley at Southshore Bay community in Florida might profit more from solar electricity generation, communities in New England might have a higher potential for wind power. This individualized design leads to significantly reduced carbon emissions, as microgrids, in general, rely on renewable energy sources for 90 percent of their energy.

The upcoming 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (commonly referred to as COP28) has pledged to advance the just energy transition through new technologies, providing ample opportunity to push the conversation on financing frameworks for microgrids forward. It represents a real pathway for progress among nation-states to ensure reliable, resilient, and affordable access to electricity worldwide.

Reliable electricity drives prospering economic development, national security, and personal security — domestically and abroad. While the United Nations’ progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 7, “clean and reliable universal electricity access,” has moved forward, 770 million people globally were still without electricity access in 2021, and 3 billion people cannot rely on their electricity supply. At this point, conventional methods are exhausted, and new technology is needed to connect the last 9 percent to reliable energy, as most electricity-insecure communities live in very rural areas or areas often affected by natural disasters.

Microgrids provide the technical solutions needed to connect the most vulnerable communities to reliable electricity that is also climate-friendly. Yet, high costs and lack of political will continue to pose a barrier to widespread development. In line with COP28’s commitment to a just energy transition, countries should make financing microgrids a top priority at the summit. Reduced costs for microgrids would enable large-scale installments, which would equip climate-vulnerable communities all over the world with the infrastructure to ensure resilient electricity supply. In the wake of growing natural disasters, the need for communities abroad and in the U.S. to have reliable and resilient access to electricity will continue to grow, and with it, the need for international financing frameworks.

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