The rapid expansion of the electric vehicle market is going to create two challenges for society: first, electrified transportation is going to increase our demand for electricity; second; in order to serve new EV owners, we will have to make rapid upgrades to our EV charging infrastructure. How will the transition to electrified transportation affect consumers, utilities and other stakeholders? We explore that question in light of the new HOMER Grid EV charging station design tool:
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HOMER Grid Tip: Using the New EV Charging Station Design Tool
HOMER Grid, software for designing distributed renewable energy systems, now includes a tool for modeling EV charging stations. Have a look and find useful links to the HOMER Grid manual that will explain how to integrate EV charging in your designs of grid-tied systems, how to cut your demand charges and calculate payback periods:
Message from the Founder – June 2020: EV charging tool and eCooking
This month the Microgrid News highlights two important developments impacted by renewable electricity: A new EV charging design feature is available in HOMER Grid, and we look at research on electric cooking and mini-grids in East Africa a trend that could save lives and help the environment:
Electric Pressure Cookers and Microgrids Provide Hope in Solving the Intractable Global Problem of Biomass Cooking
Indoor air pollution, mostly caused by cooking with wood and charcoal, causes millions of deaths each year in developing countries, mostly to women. Biomass cooking also depletes forests and adds to global warming. Now the combination of high efficiency electric pressure cookers (EPCs) powered by renewable energy mini-grids, are being tested in East Africa. The hope is that electric cooking can save lives as well as ecosystems:
Xcel Energy Planning Seven Colorado Microgrids
Xcel Energy is proposing to build seven Colorado microgrids as part of a project to boost community resilience and modernize the grid. Still pending is a decision by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission that would allow Xcel to recover the cost of the microgrids from its rate base:
HOMER Energy Expands Training, Introduces Online Version of In-Depth, Six-hour “HOMER Foundations” Course
HOMER Energy is expanding its online training offerings. You can take introductory courses or the first online version of the in-depth, six-hour HOMER Foundations course:
EarthSpark Secures $10 million from the Green Climate Fund to build 22 microgrids in Haiti
EarthSpark International, a nonprofit focused on bringing energy access to Haiti’s rural poor, has just received $10 million dollars from the UN Green Climate Fund. EarthSpark will use the money to continue and expand its efforts to build high-quality microgrids that deliver renewable electricity to over 20 towns without any access to power. Renewable electricity will help consumers save more than 50 percent of what they currently spend on kerosene, charcoal and diesel fuel:
Mountain microgrid: Alternative Power Enterprises designs an off-grid ranch system with HOMER Pro
One of the biggest microgrids on Colorado’s Western Slope powers a remote vacation ranch. Alternative Power Enterprises designed and built the project. Learn about how the design decisions that were made are saving money and increasing resiliency:
Earth Day 2020: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary
Today is the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, when millions of Americans protested air and water pollution, pesticides and waste. That event prompted important actions that improved air and water quality. Now Earth Day is worldwide, and together we face the challenge of global warming. Renewable energy is progressing rapidly. Can we harness this technology to help mitigate climate change?
8th Annual HOMER International Microgrid Conference: Virtual
HOMER Energy is pleased to announce that the 8th Annual HOMER International Microgrid Conference will take place virtually this fall, as a series of online events that will be announced soon. We look forward to involving even more people than are usually able to attend our conference. We will celebrate our new way of connecting as we share the latest innovations in microgrid development:
Actions We Can Take Right Now Toward a Cleaner, Healthier Tomorrow
Our current global situation has many of us working from our homes and adjusting to changing plans. One change is that we are going to make the 2020 HOMER International Microgrid Conference this fall a virtual event. In the meantime, Marilyn Walker, PhD, and COO of HOMER Energy, says we can use this time to plan for – and model – a clean energy future together.
HOMER Tip: Creating a Custom Controller in HOMER Grid with MATLAB Link
This month the HOMER Tip provides everything you need to know to create a custom microgrid controller in HOMER Grid. A new feature in HOMER Grid allows you to create your own dispatch algorithm using MATLABⓇ. Learn how:
“Driving on Sunshine”: Electrify America Invests in 30 Off-Grid Solar Powered Charging Stations in Rural California
Volkswagen subsidiary Electrify America is investing $2 million in portable, off-grid, solar electric vehicle charging stations. The charging stations will be deployed in rural California:
Elizabeth May Looks to Canada’s Green Future
Attorney, activist and member of the Canadian Parliament Elizabeth May led Canada’s Green Party for 13 years, stepping down in late 2019. We wanted to catch up with her and hear about her upcoming environmental priorities:
Electric Vehicle Battery Power Could Offset Residential Peak in Southern California Utility
A Southern California Edison study last fall found that simulated vehicle-to-grid charging by only 10 percent of customers could offset the utility’s entire residential peak load. While rapid growth of EV ownership is on track to put unprecedented stress on utility resources, the study suggests that using EVs as a “virtual power plant” can lessen the impact:
HOMER Tip: Importing Wind Speed Data into HOMER
In this month’s HOMER tip, we explain how to import data into the HOMER software, specifically for projects that include a wind resource. We also explain how to purchase and download high resolution wind data files from UL’s Windnavigator product site and import them into HOMER software:
Powering Patagonia Parks with Low Head Hydro Microgrids
In the wildest reaches of Patagonia, distributed energy experts are building microgrids that exploit the abundant low head hydro resources in the region. These systems are providing energy for amenities in some of the most magnificent new parks in the world:
Power Pricing in the Renewable Age
HOMER Energy CEO Dr. Peter Lilienthal discusses changes we might make in the ways we price utility power as renewable energy provides a larger proportion of our electricity. How should energy pricing be used to incentivize the use of clean energy, energy conservation and dispatch of electricity at the most efficient times? What role will microgrids play in the transition?
Dr. Peter Lilienthal Provides Ethiopia Mini-Grid Training with HOMER Software
HOMER Energy CEO Dr. Peter Lilienthal recently returned from Ethiopia, where he conducting a training on the HOMER software. Support to develop more mini-grids in rural areas is crucial to help Ethiopia expand energy access:
A Majority of Americans Believe Climate Change is the Most Important Issue Today
A recent poll by the American Psychological Association (APA) indicates that a majority of US adults (56%) believe that climate change is the most important issue facing us […]
2019 in Review: Customer Insights for African Mini Grid Developers
In a landmark 2019 report on mini grids, the World Bank highlights technology achievements and successful business models. What future developments will need to occur for distributed energy projects to meet increasing needs for energy access in developing countries? Guest author Sam Miles explores that question for Africa:
Santa Barbara Schools Look to Microgrids for Community Resilience and EV Charging
Plans are underway to build a microgrid for every one of 21 schools in the Santa Barbara Unified School District. Since the city is vulnerable to power outages from forest fires, earthquakes, heavy rains and mudslides, local officials want a more resilient power system. The Clean Coalition is leading the microgrid effort:
HOMER Grid bridges the communications gap with an essential new tool for hybrid energy projects
HOMER Grid has a new feature that will help distributed energy developers sell their projects and communicate modeling results to diverse teams. The project report creator distills critical information and presents it in data rich, professional-looking proposals that can be generated in just a few clicks:
HOMER Tip: Using the new proposal creator in HOMER Grid
HOMER Grid has a new proposal creation feature that will help project developers create professional reports in a few clicks. Learn how to use this new feature to boost client confidence and sell distributed energy projects to partners and financiers. Learn how to create powerful, data rich presentations of your HOMER Grid modeling results with this tip:
“Agrivoltaics,” a win-win strategy combining solar and agriculture
Competing land use priorities have pitted farmers and renewable energy developers against each other. As solar deployment grows rapidly, those conflicts could become more common. But, innovations with dual-use solar projects can create wins for both agriculture and clean energy, as well as new revenue streams for financially strapped family farmers. Call it “agrivoltaics:”
HOMER Energy is now part of UL
You may have heard that HOMER Energy was recently acquired by UL. That prompted HOMER Energy CEO Dr. Peter Lilienthal to think about the history of the company, its roots in the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory and its recent evolution into a globally recognized tool for the trusted design of distributed renewable energy systems.
California presses ahead with new microgrid plans
Unpopular power shutoffs to curb fire danger, and the catastrophic human and financial impact of wildfires is spurring California to move towards rapid development of microgrids. Now 20 new microgrids are slated for completion by the fall of 2020. The tribal microgrid at Blue Lake Rancheria demonstrates how these local power networks can continue to provide electricity when the main grid is down, saving lives and delivering emergency services:
Darwin’s Finches: The race to decarbonize an ecological treasure
The Galápagos Islands are among the world’s most unique and climate-vulnerable ecosystems. Now engineers from the Instituto de Energía Solar of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (IES-UPM) are using HOMER Pro to improve the local energy systems. They will be increasing renewable resources and reducing the use of diesel fuel through optimization of a key island microgrid:
Michigan launches new grid modernization program featuring microgrids
Grid modernization programs are moving forward in many states across the country, with Michigan’s the most recent. These programs are designed to increase reliance on clean, renewable energy and improve resilience. They are spurring a new interest in microgrids, as a means of delivering these changes to our energy sector:
Collaboration sparks innovation: Three landmark projects explore the future of power provision
Three southern communities are now developing “smart neighborhood” microgrids. In one, energy-efficient homes feature community-scale microgrids designed by Alabama Power / Southern Company and modeled by HOMER Grid. The project should yield new information about how to design and integrate distributed renewable energy into our electricity grid;