The Energy Grid and Nature….
The energy grid is a necessary convenience for man that, unfortunately, has to share space with the untameable environment that we depend upon for life. Keeping the power lines cleared of tree limbs is an ongoing maintenance issue that the power utilities must deal with. Fortunately for the utilities and their customers, technology is changing rapidly and providing solutions to the problems, such as sparks from power lines causing forest fires, power outages to prevent them, load balancing of the grid, inertia, surge protection, and fire suppression to name a few.
Here are a few of the technologies that we are watching because they are changing the dynamic relationship that we have created between the energy grid and our natural resources.
Graphene super-capacitors are now on par with batteries in terms of price and capacity, without the maintenance, but with charge rates in minutes instead of hours, and with 4-times the life expectancy.
https://www.skeletontech.com/ultracapacitor-technology
Rotating flywheels in millions of home-energy systems may provide the answer to the grid’s inertia problem.
Capstone Microturbines deliver distributed energy around the world
https://www.capstoneturbine.com/