It also offers additional benefits, such as improved health due to reduced kerosene consumption. Deployment of microgrids is already profitable in many parts of the world that have historically depended on imported diesel for electricity. Microgrid infrastructure enables a transition to a decentralized power system that is more reliable, affordable, and sustainable. Microgrids can help bridge the gap between electricity supply and demand while making use of locally available energy resources. An optimal combination of centralized and decentralized systems can capture both the strength of the central grid and the agility of decentralized infrastructure. Increasing demand for electricity globally is bound to test the limits of a centralized power system in the near future. DiscussionĮquitable access to energy is a crucial prerequisite for sustainable development. For higher-income countries, the benefits of microgrid systems fall under our Grid Flexibility solution and also under the impacts of increased adoption of decentralized variable renewable energy sources. Therefore, we do not directly model the impact of microgrids. We account for the emissions and economic impacts for this solution in the models for our renewable energy and accompanying enabling technologies solutions (e.g., Small Hydropower, Micro Wind Turbines, Distributed Solar Photovoltaics, Biomass Power, Distributed Energy Storage). Microgrids also make economic sense in remote and island locations that have historically depended on imported diesel for electricity, in regions with an unreliable conventional grid, and for cellphone towers that rely extensively on expensive diesel-based power. Several studies indicate that the price paid by microgrid customers for electric lighting is far less than the price for lighting using kerosene and candles (Barefoot Power, 2009). For roughly 300 million unelectrified households globally, kerosene has been the dominant fuel source for lighting. Providing energy access to these people using low-carbon energy technologies would bring many additional benefits, including improved health, education, and employment. The International Energy Agency (IEA, 2014) anticipates that more than 50 percent of the rural and remote population currently without electricity would be best supplied by mini or microgrids. More than 1 billion people lack access to a centralized power grid (Greenpeace, 2015), and population growth is outpacing electrification. Microgrids also can be helpful for supplying electricity to rural parts of low-income countries. Microgrids can play a critical role in boosting grid flexibility and efficiency. A typical microgrid might include distributed generation technologies such as wind, solar, hydropower, or biomass, together with energy storage units or backup generation and load management tools. It replaces the conventional practice of powering buildings and communities with electricity from a centralized grid.Ī microgrid is semi-autonomous and can locally control loads and supply. Project Drawdown defines our Microgrids solution as the use of localized groupings of electricity sources and loads that normally connect to the traditional centralized power grid, but can disconnect and function autonomously.
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