State of the Grid

we are so fucked !

After decades of collective blissful ignorance, and despite accelerated adoption of renewables across the globe in recent years, the future we are headed for remains very grim. Climate change and its adverse effects are becoming increasingly devastating and frequent with each passing year. Although the world has seen widespread adoption of renewables in the past decade, the vast majority of human existence continues to be deeply reliant upon the combustion of fossil fuels. It is expected to remain this way for the near future.

As it turns out, reversing the damages from more than a century-long love affair humans have had with fossil fuels takes more than just putting up modern age solar and wind plants, and then plugging them into power grids that haven’t changed much in the last 150 years. “The solution” humankind urgently seeks is going to be much more complicated, and solar and wind are going to be only a part of that solution, albeit, an important one.

Climate change is most certainly the greatest challenge of our generation, and it is now beyond just farting cows and black exhausts from tall chimneys — there are several problems that need to be urgently solved simultaneously for continued human survival.



Challenge #1: renewables are the problem

In many geographies across the globe, solar and wind have started outcompeting fossil fuels, both technologically and economically. While this is good news, renewables bring their own set of problems that hinder their adoption. There are several challenges that need to be solved before renewables can be integrated into a power grid that is 100% green, but all of them arise from the fundamental mismatch in the way power grids and renewable plants operate. While renewables are inherently unpredictable and intermittent, power grids are very sensitive to fluctuations and are built primarily for base-load generators. This mismatch can even bring down an entire power grid.

Base-load.

Curtailment.

Duck curve.

Inertia.

In many geographies across the globe, solar and wind have started outcompeting fossil fuels, both technologically and economically. While this is good news, renewables bring their own set of problems that hinder their adoption. Renewables are inherently unpredictable and intermittent, but power grids are extremely sensitive to fluctuations. This mismatch can even bring down an entire power grid. Even in significantly less severe scenarios, this mismatch results in a phenomenon called curtailment that significantly reduces the profitability of renewable plants and increases operational complexities for grid operators. Another peculiar and counterintuitive phenomenon that results from increased adoption of renewables on the power grid is the "Duck Curve." This arises from the mismatch of power generation curves from solar plants versus power consumption curves on the power grid, resulting in the deployment of even more fossil-fueled power plants to handle the transition from renewable generation to fossil-fueled generation.

To avoid long texts, link a video explaining the things instead.

Base load -- need to be mentioned.



Also, add a page called "press kit" where you put images and data that press guys can directly get their info from rather than sharing every time with them individually.