To Avoid Power Outages, We Need to Diversify Supply

Electric grids can be reliable, affordable, and clean; anyone who says we can’t have all three is presenting a false choice. But that requires policymakers to do many things right. There are no panaceas or silver bullets — no “one thing” that will take care of it all. Every energy resource has problems and limitations. 

That means we need a great diversity of resources — on both the supply side and demand side.  

I wrote last week about how tapping demand-side resources could help alleviate these problems. This week, I’ll focus on diversifying the supply side, specifically with geothermal power, long-duration energy storage, and greater geographic dispersion of wind energy and the transmission to move it. All of these things will increase reliability, lower costs, and reduce emissions…