Eliminating fossil fuels means shifting how electricity is produced and distributed from the source.
Writing in High Country News, Jonathan Thompson warns that the movement toward electrification will only improve sustainability if decarbonization reaches power generating plants as well. “The electric power sector is the nation’s second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after transportation. Electrifying everything might do little more than redistribute emissions from buildings and cars to the power grid.”
According to Thommpson, “The electric power sector needs to quit fossil fuels, cold turkey. And that requires massive investments in new power sources and innovation to remake the grid for a carbon-free world.”
Thompson goes on to highlight twelve methods for decarbonizing the grid, including eliminating coal and natural gas power plants, promoting efforts to build better batteries to store renewable energy, growing grid interconnections, and making buildings and vehicles more efficient so that they require less energy to begin with.
For example, ‘geographical smoothing’ can help states share and transmit excess energy. “This will require centralizing operations at what are now dozens of distinct power grids across the West—and building more long-distance transmission.” On the flip side, microgrids that are integrated but can also operate independently can stave off blackouts when disasters occur.
Read the full story: 12 not-so-easy steps to decarbonize the grid
Texas Rural Communities Could Lose Billions From Renewable Energy Tax Credit Cuts
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Rebate programs are at the heart of collaborative success.
Harnessing Waste Heat Through Thermoelectricity
Heat from industrial installations and buildings can be captured to create renewable electricity.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Judges permit Denver to divert 77,000 acre feet from the Colorado River for reservoir expansion
Overuse and climate change have caused the Colorado River’s water levels to plummet.
Nation's most wind-powered state turns to coal as data centers increase energy demand
For the first time in decades, Iowa has increased its generation of coal power.
Boston has spent millions making the Green Line more accessible — and there’s no end in sight
While the city has invested millions into expanding and adding platforms to the Green Line to make it more accessible, new train cars set to arrive next year will be too tall for disabled passengers to board without raising the current platforms.
Idaho may see an 18% drop in federal surface transit funding — the largest estimated cut in the US
Transit systems in rural communities are much more reliant on federal funding to provide their services.
How ‘post-disaster gentrification’ alters neighborhoods after natural calamities
After hurricanes, fires or other calamities, the original residents of a community are often replaced by younger, wealthier residents.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
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Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Wisconsin Rapids
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
KFH Group Inc.
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello