{"id":3142,"date":"2024-08-29T13:44:08","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T20:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/?p=3142"},"modified":"2024-08-29T13:56:47","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T20:56:47","slug":"california-wildfires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/","title":{"rendered":"California Wildfires: Impact on the Grid and Role of Renewable Energy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The large-scale wildfires in California over the past several years have not only caused significant destruction. They have also raised<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.ucla.edu\/releases\/wildfires-california-electrical-grid-eric-fournier\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> concerns about the state\u2019s electric grid<\/a>, which currently relies on highly centralized sources of power generation and the unidirectional flow of power from a few very large generating stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Due to their massive size and the potential for harmful emissions (in the case of fossil fuel-based generator plants), many of these generation stations are located in remote areas, far from consumers. This means the grid\u2019s operation has to depend largely on transmission infrastructure to move the power. This transmission infrastructure can be compromised due to its age or exposure to an extreme hazard like high heat or wildfires. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microgridknowledge.com\/solar-plus-storage\/article\/33006941\/solar-and-storage-microgrids-better-than-diesel-in-wildfire-prone-communities-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">At least five of the 20<\/a> most destructive California wildfires, including the massively destructive Camp Fire in 2018, were attributed to power line problems.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Addressing the challenges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The adoption of distributed renewable energy generation and storage could help mitigate these hazards and exposure. Not only does renewable energy generation slow down the rate of climate change and help reduce the likelihood of severe wildfire in the future, it provides some capacity to continue making power available to consumers in the event of a transmission infrastructure failure (think solar installations on homes, for example).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extensive modernization upgrades will help support higher levels of distributed energy resource penetration and enable bi-directional power flows.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.microgridknowledge.com\/solar-plus-storage\/article\/33006941\/solar-and-storage-microgrids-better-than-diesel-in-wildfire-prone-communities-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">An international team led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory<\/a> set out to prove that solar storage microgrids are an excellent long-term solution for power storage and distribution. They conducted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/abs\/pii\/S0306261923001083\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study<\/a> modeling clean energy microgrids at seven California communities that are vulnerable to wildfires. The microgrids ran on solar and storage for at least 60% of the year with fossil fuel generators acting as a secondary source. The team focused on households where heating and cooling account for most of the energy use. The results were encouraging: not only do these microgrids reduce demand on the state power grid, they are also more economical: on average, 5 to 10 cents less per kilowatt hour than power from the state\u2019s electrical grid.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis study, the first detailed look into how clean energy microgrids can minimize outages and the cost of energy, has relevance for the entire nation, not just California,\u201d explains Dominic DiMare, Principal, BEI Construction. \u201cMore than 46 million people in 70,000 U.S. communities live in areas at risk of serious wildfires, and this could prove an efficient and cost-effective way to improve wildfire resilience and energy availability long-term.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs a leading provider of <a href=\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/services\/renewable-energy-overview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">construction services for renewable energy infrastructure<\/a> in California, BEI continues to keep abreast of the latest research on the power grid and energy conservation, and will continue to share it with our readers,\u201d adds DiMare.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The large-scale wildfires in California over the past several years have not only caused significant destruction. They have also raised concerns about the state\u2019s electric grid, which currently relies on highly centralized sources of power generation and the unidirectional flow of power from a few very large generating stations. Due to their massive size and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":3146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","beyondwords_generate_audio":"","beyondwords_integration_method":"","beyondwords_project_id":"","beyondwords_content_id":"","beyondwords_preview_token":"","beyondwords_player_content":"","beyondwords_player_style":"","beyondwords_language_code":"","beyondwords_language_id":"","beyondwords_title_voice_id":"","beyondwords_body_voice_id":"","beyondwords_summary_voice_id":"","beyondwords_error_message":"","beyondwords_disabled":"","beyondwords_delete_content":"","beyondwords_podcast_id":"","beyondwords_hash":"","publish_post_to_speechkit":"","speechkit_hash":"","speechkit_generate_audio":"","speechkit_project_id":"","speechkit_podcast_id":"","speechkit_error_message":"","speechkit_disabled":"","speechkit_access_key":"","speechkit_error":"","speechkit_info":"","speechkit_response":"","speechkit_retries":"","speechkit_status":"","speechkit_updated_at":"","_speechkit_link":"","_speechkit_text":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,299,297,163],"class_list":["post-3142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-bei-construction","tag-california-wildfires","tag-grid-impact","tag-renewable-energy"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>California Wildfires: Grid Impact &amp; Renewable Energy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Explore how California wildfires affect the grid and how renewable energy like solar microgrids boosts resilience and reduces costs.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California Wildfires: Grid Impact &amp; Renewable Energy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Explore how California wildfires affect the grid and how renewable energy like solar microgrids boosts resilience and reduces costs.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BEI Construction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-08-29T20:44:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-08-29T20:56:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Blog-posts-13-1024x576.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Eliana Silva\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@BEICONINC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@BEICONINC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Eliana Silva\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Eliana Silva\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ec990bf9a1ec413511c6af4128d3c861\"},\"headline\":\"California Wildfires: Impact on the Grid and Role of Renewable Energy\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-29T20:44:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-29T20:56:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/\"},\"wordCount\":466,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Blog-posts-13.png\",\"keywords\":[\"BEI Construction\",\"California wildfires\",\"grid impact\",\"renewable energy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/\",\"name\":\"California Wildfires: Grid Impact & Renewable Energy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Blog-posts-13.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-08-29T20:44:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-08-29T20:56:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"Explore how California wildfires affect the grid and how renewable energy like solar microgrids boosts resilience and reduces costs.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/california-wildfires\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Blog-posts-13.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/beiconstruction.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Blog-posts-13.png\",\"width\":1960,\"height\":1103,\"caption\":\"A massive wildfire burning in a forested area, with large plumes of smoke rising above the treeline. 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