Electricity networks are buckling under the impact of increasingly frequent and severe climate events. Given the amount of climate change already locked into the atmosphere, this is an issue that will only worsen, forcing assets and infrastructure to adapt. The tools to deal with the problem are available—but it will take a lot of money and political will to avert disaster
Grid operators are waking up to the need for greater infrastructure resilience as climate change increases the severity of weather events
CLIMATE CHALLENGE Today’s grids were not built for a warming climate where high-intensity weather events are commonplace
RESILIENCE REQUIRED Grid operators are starting to distinguish between reliability and resilience—and to plan for the latter
KEY QUOTE The precise implications of future weather patterns have not been fully studied or planned for ...
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Power capacity markets on both sides of the Atlantic face an uncertain future as flexibility becomes a hotter commodity than capacity.
A start-up based in Scotland is confident it has found an affordable silver bullet to allow the world’s grids to deal with massive amounts of renewables, but system operators are not so sure
Schleswig-Holstein, Germany is testing how a 100% renewable power system can be achieved with internal low voltage distribution networks, flexible consumption and generation from local production points
As the clean energy industry forges ahead into new markets, sometimes with technologies yet to stand the test of time, conditions for obtaining insurance for renewable energy facilities have tightened significantly, particularly for the increasing number of projects built in areas susceptible to natural disasters
Without a European grid up to the task of not only meeting more demand for electricity, but also assimilating it from distributed renewables, green electrification of heating and transport is stymied from the start. Decarbonisation requires new infrastructure, yet the public is having none of it.
A new transmission line across the Baltic Sea shows that a more integrated European power network is not only steadily evolving, but that innovative approaches to infrastructure design can bring down the cost of the energy transition.
An interconnected transmission grid in Europe would result in lower prices and greater levels of clean energy. But several nations are falling behind on export capacity leading to some member states looking beyond the Union’s borders
As technology costs come down and microgrids become increasingly “smart” using more advanced digital tools, their role in integrating distributed energy resources is set to expand. By providing flexibility to the local distribution system and deferring the need for expensive transmission upgrades, microgrids are facilitating the electrification and decarbonisation of the energy networks
As the amount of traditional inertia on our grid systems decreases with the shift to inverter-based resources like wind and solar photovoltaics (PV), system operators are increasingly seeking carbon-free alternatives for stabilising frequency