America's answer to hotter summers has overwhelmingly been more air conditioning, and engineers are now looking for ways to keep people cool without driving up electricity demand. Why it matters: The need for cooling is surging. The issue isn't just how to generate more electricity — it's how to use less of it and ease demand when grids are most strained. Between the lines: A July study finds that keeping buildings cool without relying solely on AC will be critical for adapting to climate change. - AC is already nearly ubiquitous in the U.S., but that doesn't mean its electricity consumption has peaked. - "The market is saturated, but the use of air conditioning or the energy consumption for air conditioning will increase because…
America's answer to hotter summers has overwhelmingly been more air conditioning, and engineers are now looking for ways to keep people cool without driving up electricity demand. Why it matters: The need for cooling is surging. The issue isn't just how to generate more electricity — it's how to use less of it and ease demand when grids are most strained. Between the lines: A July study finds that keeping buildings cool without relying solely on AC will be critical for adapting to climate change. - AC is already nearly ubiquitous in the U.S., but that doesn't mean its electricity consumption has peaked. - "The market is saturated, but the use of air conditioning or the energy consumption for air conditioning will increase because…Open
The United States Department of Energy has triggered an emergency across the nation’s largest power grid, as the summer's heat wave continues to impact more than 250 million people.
To secure the US power grid, FERC must provide strong financial incentives to accelerate deployment of proven protection technologies. The Center for Security Policy and the Secure the Grid Coalition filed a formal Complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), docketed as EL26-49-000, this month. This is not another bureaucratic footnote. It is a direct challenge to the electric utility industry’s dangerous complacency—and a lifeline for the continuity of American society itself. The complaint asks FERC to do one simple, urgent thing: order the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC ) to assess and protect America’s bulk power system against ground-induced currents (GICs) to the international…Open
A House Energy and Commerce hearing examining electric reliability during Winter Storm Fern revealed a shift in rhetoric on energy. Democrats appeared to now accept that the grid needs fossil fuels, and points about a "climate crisis" were noticeably rare.
