Transcript:
Cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and new manufacturing plants are creating a fast-growing demand for electricity.
Janous: “So we have an imperative in this country right now to grow the electric grid to support a number of key industries.”
Brian Janous cofounded Cloverleaf Infrastructure, which works with companies and utilities to tackle the challenge.
He says it starts with optimizing the energy resources we already have.
For example, utilities can adopt software systems that monitor the grid and route power in real time to transmission lines that are not at capacity. It’s like rerouting car traffic to avoid bottlenecks.
And with more battery storage, energy generated at low-demand times can be stored and used when needed.
But even with these improvements, energy generation will need to increase.
Janous says in the short term to ramp up supply quickly, utilities will likely turn to fossil fuels.
So to limit the climate impact of increased energy demand in the long term, it’s important to plan ahead and invest in clean energy.
Janous: “It’s about how do you build that runway and that path towards ultimately using this increase in demand to actually move us forward in terms of decarbonization rather than backward?”
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
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