Why America’s outdated energy grid is a climate problem
Transmission towers are shown on June 15, 2021 in Houston, Texas. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which controls approximately 90% of the power in Texas, has requested Texas residents to conserve power through Friday as temperatures surge in the state.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
This story is part of CNBC’s “Transmission Troubles” series, an inside look at why the aging electrical grid in the U.S. is struggling to keep up, how it’s being improved, and why it’s so vital to fighting climate change.
The network of transmission lines that carry electricity across the U.S. is old and not set up to meet the anticipated demand for clean energy sources like wind and solar.
Currently, electricity generation results in 32% of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, mostly from burning fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas. Those fuels are transported and burned where electricity is needed.
But inexpensive emissions-free sources of energy, like solar and wind, are only abundant in places where the sun shines or wind blows, and that’s not necessarily close to homes and businesses. Moreover, demand for electricity is going to rise as fossil fuels are gradually replaced for a whole host of other uses, such as electric vehicles and heat pumps.
Keeping the lights on and the air clean will require a lot of new transmission.
‘A double whammy’: Age and location
Most of the U.S. electric grid was built in the 1960s and 1970s. Currently, over 70% of the U.S. electricity grid is more than 25 years old, according to the White House.
That creates “vulnerability,” the U.S. Department of Energy said in an announcement of an initiative included in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to catalyze investment in the nation’s grid.
In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, U.S. electricity customers were without power for slightly longer than seven hours on average, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. More than five of those seven hours were during what the EIA calls “major events,” including snowstorms, hurricanes, and wildfires. That’s a significant rise from the three-to-four-hour average for outages between 2013 (the first year the data is available) and 2016, and the main culprit is extreme weather.
“Extreme weather events like the Dixie Wildfire, Hurricane Ida, and the 2021 Texas Freeze have made it clear that America’s existing energy infrastructure will not endure the continuing impacts of extreme weather events spurred by climate change,” the U.S. Department of Energy said.
Transmission infrastructure lasts between 50 and 80 years, according to a 2021 presentation from the advisory firm, the Brattle Group. Replacing transmission infrastructure that’s reaching its age limit is likely to costing an estimated $10 billion a year, according to the Brattle Group analysis.
American Electric Power, an energy company that owns 40,000 miles of transmission miles, has said 30% of its transmission lines will need replacement over the next 10 years, as highlighted by a 2022 report from the transmission policy group, Grid Strategies.
In addition to the increasing age, the location of the existing transmission lines is a problem.
Fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas are typically transported by railroads or pipelines, then burned in power plants near cities.
The electricity industry in the U.S. grew up through a patchwork of local utility companies meeting local demand, Rob Gramlich, the founder of Grid Strategies, told CNBC. The system of transmission lines in the U.S. was built to serve that model of energy generation.
Clean energy sources, like wind and solar, do not release greenhouse gas emissions, but the energy generated must be moved from where the wind and sun are strongest to where the electricity is actually used.
Wind resources in the United States, according to the the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.
That’s especially true for tapping into the highest quality of wind energy, explained Princeton professor Jesse Jenkins, a macro-scale energy systems engineer.
“Wind turbine power scales with the wind speed cubed. That means the best wind power sites are eight times more productive than the worst ones, versus just twice as productive for solar,” Jenkins said.
“That greater degree of variation in wind power potential means we need to build wind farms where it’s really windy, and that tends to not be where too many people live! So wind power development is a big driver of expanded transmission needs,” Jenkins told CNBC.
It’s easier to build solar panels close to where they are needed, but “not so for wind farms,” Jenkins said.
The combination of an aging infrastructure that needs costly upgrades and an energy grid doesn’t go where clean — and cheap — forms of renewable energy are located is “unfortunately a double whammy for consumers,” Gramlich told CNBC.
“But consumers benefit from the cheap generation that transmission enables,” Gramlich said. He advocates for replacing old infrastructure with advanced technology that can handle next generation transmission needs.
“It would be such a waste to replace old assets with replacements of the same capacity and quality,” Gramlich said.
Solar resources in the United States, according to the the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Demand will build fast
In the 1960s and 1970s, electricity construction boomed in both the United States and in Europe, said Konstantin Staschus, who has been focusing on the issue of transmission for his entire career, both in California and Europe.
“Those were the times when California was planning to have a nuclear power plant every 100 miles or so up and down the coast, many more than they ended up building in reality, because they kept projecting 7% annual electricity demand increases, which they used to have in the 60s, into the indefinite future,” Staschus told CNBC. “And they thought they would need generation and transmission coming out of the ears to cover future demands.”
But during and after the oil shocks of the 1970’s, the U.S. dramatically reduced its own energy demand. “Demand growth essentially dropped to 1 or 2% rather than seven and more or less stayed there,” he told CNBC.
From the late 1970’s through the early 2000’s, the U.S. transmission grid expanded at about 2% per year, Jenkins told CNBC.
Now, demand for electricity is going to increase rapidly as efforts to respond to global warming and mitigate the effects of climate change ramp up.
Demand for electricity in 2030 will be 14% to 19% higher than 2021 levels, according to an analysis from REPEAT(Rapid Energy Policy Evaluation and Analysis Toolkit), an energy policy project Jenkins is part of leading, and 27% to 39% higher by 2035, Jenkins said.
“A 21st century grid has to accommodate steadily rising electricity demand to power electric vehicles, heat pumps, industrial electrification and hydrogen electrolysis, and it needs to extend to new parts of the country to harness the best wind and solar resources. Both factors mean we simply need a bigger grid with more long-distance transmission,” Jenkins told CNBC.
“Throw in resiliency benefits of stronger inter-regional grid connections so a region that’s struggling with a extreme event can call on its neighbors for help, and you’ve got even more reason to build a stronger, bigger grid,” Jenkins said.
Velotric has continued to regularly update its popular e-bike models, with the latest launch today bringing us the Nomad 2. This fat tire adventure bike carries a host of new features and components, offering a powerful yet comfortable ride on both city streets and off-road trails.
The Velotric Nomad 2 sports a 750W nominally-rated motor with a true 90 Nm of torque. In other words, it’s designed to eat hills for breakfast and lay down some real power when riders need it most. And with both throttle-activated control and 15 levels of responsive pedal assist, that power can be dialed in to the right level for each rider’s own taste. And with a maximum speed of 28 mph, the bike is fast enough to keep up with traffic… when riders aren’t enjoying a relaxing trail ride.
Speaking of pedal assist, Velotric offers what they call SensorSwap, a feature in the pedal assist system that uses both a cadence sensor and a torque sensor and allows riders to select which sensor is being used at any time. The former allows riders to pedal easily while still getting impressive power output from the motor, while the latter offers more intuitive riding that provides a more natural feeling akin to pedaling a bike with extra powerful legs.
Torque sensors are often considered superior for their more refined experience, but cadense sensors are still praised by riders who don’t want to put in the extra effort required by torque sensors. With a torque sensor, the rider’s pedaling effort is multiplied, but a cadense sensor lets riders feel like they’re pedaling without needing to actually provide as much of their own ‘oomph’.
The Nomad 2’s design includes off-road features such as 26×4.0″ tires, a 100mm travel hydraulic suspension fork, and an included parallel linkage suspension seat post.
Combined with the powerful motor that offers 1,000 lb of towing capacity (plus 505 lb of payload), the 75 lb e-bike is built to handle just about anything, and that includes nearly any trail.
“Sometimes the road less traveled is the better one,” says Adam Zhang, the CEO of Velotric. “Nomad 2 speaks to those who love the journey, and the occasional detour! Whether you’re climbing trails, hauling heavy loads, or simply cruising, our latest bike gives you the freedom to ride further, faster, and more comfortably than ever before.”
And since off-road adventures often don’t have clear-cut end times, the bike offers 65 miles of maximum range thanks to the 48V and 14.7 Ah battery with 705 Wh of capacity. That battery is UL-listed and IPX7 waterproof, meaning you can dunk it in water. I’ve done exactly that with Velotric batteries before and they’ve survived for many more rides.
Rounding out the feature list includes a 3.5″ color display, Bluetooth connectivity, USB-C phone charger, 500 lumen headlight, tail light with turn signals, included rear rack with fenders, hydraulic disc brakes, an 8-speed Shimano transmission, and more.
The Velotric Nomad 2 is priced at $1,999 and went on sale today.
Riders can snag it in two sizes with four color options, and with a choice between a high-step and a step-through frame style.
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A Tesla store in New York City has been taken over by people protesting Elon Musk – disrupting the operations.
As we have reported over the last few weeks, there’s a growing movement called “Tesla Takedown,” under which grassroots protests are being organized at Tesla stores around the world.
There have been many more protests this weekend. Some of them had truly impressive turnouts.
For example, hundreds of people showed up to protest at Tesla’s Tuscon location (via Andy Flach):
These protests have been peaceful and legal, but there have been a few exceptions.
At Tesla’s Manhattan store in New York City today, some protestors managed to get inside the store and it started to cause problems.
Here’s a video (via Oliya Scootercaster ):
About 300 people showed up to the protests. Most of them stayed protesting peacefully outside, but a handful of people got in and Tesla employees had to close the stores as more tried to get in.
The police confirmed having arrested 9 people, but the charges are not clear as of now.
In videos of the aftermath, it looks like a few glass doors and windows were broken.
Similar protests have been reported in most major cities in the US and they are planned for the next few weeks.
Electrek’s Take
This is getting bigger and still gaining momentum. I’m honestly surprised by the response. I thought it would last weekend with a few dozen people at a few stores and that’s it.
But it looks like now thousands of people are getting active and it’s becoming a real problem for Tesla.
Enough to get the board to act and remove Elon Musk? I doubt it. Elon has done plenty of fireable offenses and they haven’t even blinked – because they are all in Elon’s pockets.
I think the stock price is the only thing that can really get things moving.
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Electrifying your commercial fleet is a tricky thing. Sure, you want to cut your fuel costs. You want to reduce your operating variables. Heck you you even want to help corporate meet their ESG goals – but where do you start? MAN Trucks is here to help fleet managers get answers.
As more and more heavy trucking fleets begin to deploy electric assets, they’re proving that operators’ range anxiety may be a myth on most routes. That’s true enough here in North America, and truer still in Europe where distances between cities are condensed and trucks like the Mercedes eActros and Renault E-Tech T semi roam.
MAN Trucks are also a popular choice in Europe, and their leadership – unlike most in the industry – have been especially vocal in their criticism of hydrogen, and have fully embraced battery-electric vehicles. As such, it’s no wonder that the company took to LinkedIn to announce its MAN electric commercial vehicles consultation team.
“It’s Full Power here with the MAN electric commercial vehicles consultation team,” writes Roger Turnbull, Head of EV Truck Consultation at MAN Truck. “After another busy week of meetings presenting to haulage and transport organizations of all sizes across the UK – you can feel the EV interest and enthusiasm growing.”
MAN Trucks’ consultation team helps commercial fleet operators in Europe and the UK fully understand the needs of their fleet, analyzes their fuel and maintenance costs, and helps them get a better understanding of what fleet assets are prime candidates for electrification, and what sort of charging solutions might work best for their operations – and that doesn’t always mean on-site charging.
With the capacity for onsite charging now becoming a reality for many plus proof that operators range anxiety maybe a myth on most routes, our industry is already stepping up a gear to find out more.
ROGER TURNBULL, MAN TRUCKS
Off-site charging solutions like those offered by Voltera and Zeem here in the US seem to be somewhat less common in Europe, but the electric trucking infrastructure as-a-whole seems to be a step or two ahead. That, combined with generally higher fuel costs compared to the US, make it a bit easier for fleets to electrify. And MAN will help them see that.
The best part? MAN’s consultation is free, and requires no obligation to buy. “Your MAN EV Consultation Team in the UK offer free information, advice and support,” offers Turnbull. “[Everything] from the basics to multi-vehicle using multiple site locations. Factually checked and honest.”
You can’t do much better than free, right?
Electrek’s Take
Fleet assessments and fleet asset audits are crucial steps on the path to successful fleet electrification. These comprehensive evaluations provide fleet operators with valuable insights into their current fleet operations, energy consumption patterns, and infrastructure needs. By carefully analyzing this data, fleet managers can make informed decisions about which vehicles to prioritize for electrification while minimizing the potential for “surprises” once the trucks are delivered and the funds are tied up.
If you’re a fleet manager reading this, you should get a fleet energy analysis set up soon – whether you’re planning to electrify or not.
SOURCE | PHOTOS: MAN Trucks.
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