- By Sadie Cox, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
Climate related temperature changes, droughts, and increases in extreme weather events have various implications for the energy sector. Rising temperatures are expected to increase energy demand, while decreased water availability and natural disasters may impact energy production and reliability of the electricity grid. Solutions for climate resilient, low emission energy systems include:
Deploying renewable energy sources adapted to climate change: Solar photovoltaic and wind power generation consume significantly less water than traditional thermal technologies and offer a valuable solution to address both climate change mitigation and resilience challenges.
Spatially diverse electricity systems: Whereas conventional power systems in one central geographic location could be severely impacted by a single weather event, spatially diverse electricity systems reduce the risk of large scale power outage where electricity is drawn from spatially distributed resources, including renewable energy. “Extreme weather events such as storms, forest fires, landslides, floods and extreme temperatures affect energy production and delivery facilities, cause supply disruptions and affect infrastructure that depends on the energy supply. The risk to energy infrastructure will grow as the frequency and intensity of certain types of extreme weather events increase.” Rising sea levels caused by climate change will affect coastal and offshore energy infrastructure, and need to be taken into account when choosing energy supply options.
Distributed generation such as micro grids or islanded systems: Systems that can operate independently from the central grid can be crucial during natural disasters or electricity outages to provide power to healthcare and other sensitive facilities.
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