• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’ January 23, 2023
Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom January 23, 2023
IRON OXIDE: New Battery Brings Long-Duration Storage to Grids, 750 Jobs to West Virginia January 23, 2023
BREAKING: GFANZ Banks, Investors Pour Hundreds of Billions into Fossil Fuels January 17, 2023
Next
Prev

Air conditioning drains US power supply

February 10, 2017
Reading time: 3 minutes
Primary Author: Tim Radford

 

As the world heats up so too will the need for air conditioning, but America’s electricity grid could struggle to meet demand, say US scientists.

LONDON, 10 February, 2017 – America’s power supply could one day falter just when customers need it most. New research suggests that although global warming will lower demand in some places in winter, in high summer on the hottest days the demand for air conditioning could at times be so great that the electricity supply grid would not cope.

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

Even if climate change is only moderate by the end of the century, there will be an average daily increase in demand of 2.8%, and daily peak demand could rise by up to 7%. But if humans go on burning ever more fossil fuels, filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gases and raising global average temperatures, then by 2100 peak demand could spike by as much as 18%. And the number of days in which demand was extreme would jump by 395%.

And to cope with this demand, US scientists say in their study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, the authorities will probably have to spend at least $70bn and up to $180bn in improvements to the supply system.

Rise in air conditioning

“Climate change researchers know that when we look out over the next 100 years, things will get warmer and, on a per-person basis, use of air conditioning will rise. The question we asked was: ‘On the hottest day of the year, when people are maxing out on that, can the grid handle it?’ We build the grid for the hottest hour of the year,” says Catherine Hausman of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the US.

“This means that climate change adaption is going to be more expensive than we thought. And so mitigation efforts become more valuable – more worthwhile – because they can prevent these costs. Our findings should inform the cost-benefit calculations of climate change policy.”

“We’re not trying to say this is the future scenario. We’re
saying: ‘If the future climate were here now, what would
need to happen to the grid to adapt to that warmer world?’”

Conventional urban air-conditioning systems present a paradox: they burn energy and generate heat to keep buildings cool. And there is no doubt that they will be needed. Researchers have repeatedly warned that some regions could become intolerably hot by the century’s end. Other studies have predicted ever greater demand for air conditioning, which will in turn accelerate global warming.

The scientists examined data from 166 US authorities whose role it is to balance electricity supply and demand. They then matched the response to temperature for both total daily demand and daily peak load, and played with 20 climate models to allow for a range of scenarios.

Lessons from the US

The research is limited to only one nation, but since the power-hungry US represented one-fifth of the planet’s electricity market in 2012 – consuming more than all of Europe combined – and since it is the world’s biggest producer and consumer, second only to China, the study holds lessons for the rest of the world.

Studies such as these are precautionary: they are designed to forewarn civic authorities and utility companies that must plan for the decades ahead. Greater investment in air and wind power cannot deliver all the answers, because skies may be cloudy or the air still when demand surges to a peak. And energy researchers still haven’t found and perfected any cheap, easy way to store electric current for emergency use on a large scale. The Michigan study is a warning rather than a forecast, as it takes no account of potential technological change that might make air conditioning more efficient.

“We’re not trying to say this is the future scenario,” Dr Hausman says. “We’re saying: ‘If the future climate were here now, what would need to happen to the grid to adapt to that warmer world?’” – Climate News Network



in Climate News Network

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

U.S. Geological Survey/wikimedia commons
Biodiversity & Habitat

Climate Change Amplifies Risk of ‘Insect Apocalypse’

December 1, 2022
42
Alaa Abd El-Fatah/wikimedia commons
COP Conferences

Rights Abuses, Intrusive Conference App Put Egypt Under Spotlight as COP 27 Host

November 14, 2022
26
Western Arctic National Parklands/wikimedia commons
Arctic & Antarctica

Arctic Wildfires Show Approach of New Climate Feedback Loop

January 2, 2023
27

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
245
United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
51
RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.2k
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
289
Weirton, WV by Jon Dawson/flickr

IRON OXIDE: New Battery Brings Long-Duration Storage to Grids, 750 Jobs to West Virginia

January 23, 2023
511
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
268

Recent Posts

Sergio Boscaino/flickr

Dubai Mulls Quitting C40 Cities Over ‘Costly’ Climate Target

January 24, 2023
89
hangela/pixabay

New UK Coal Mine Faces Two Legal Challenges

January 24, 2023
46

Gas Stoves Enter U.S. Climate Culture War, Become ‘Bellwether’ for Industry

January 22, 2023
75
Jeff Hitchcock/flickr.

BREAKING: GFANZ Banks, Investors Pour Hundreds of Billions into Fossil Fuels

January 23, 2023
498

Exxon Had the Right Global Warming Numbers Through Decades of Denial: Study

January 17, 2023
226
willenhallwench / Pixabay

Ontario Greenwashes with ‘Misleading, Illegitimate’ Emission Credits

January 16, 2023
314
Next Post

Norway saves skiing with climate-friendly snow

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}