Our strategy in the solar energy deployment could be much smarter. This humble editor does not say, but an advanced computational model developed by Harvard, Rutgers and Stony Brook universities in the United States after processing five years of electricity network data.
Climate profitability. That is the key to the recent research published by the magazine Science Advances. The authors have identified the regions of the country where each new solar panel offers the highest performance in terms of carbon dioxide reduction.
The conclusion is overwhelming: to maximize the reduction of emissions, instead of Install solar panels Everywhere, it is better to install them in the right places.
The “where” before the “how many”. Not all solar energy megawatts are the same. The impact of adding photovoltaic to the electricity grid depends strongly on the energy matrix that already exists in the region. The study makes it clear After processing with AI The generation, demand and emission data of 13 regions of the United States between 2018 and 2023.
The regions where solar energy has a huge impact are those that still depend largely on very polluting fossil fuels, such as coal. In places like California, Florida, the West, Texas and the Southwest, each kilowatt-moor of solar energy that is injected into the RED directly replaces energy generated by coal or gas plants. The result is a massive and immediate reduction of CO₂.
What happens in the other regions. In places like New England, the central area of the United States and Tennessee, the effect is minimal. The reason? They already have a cleaner energy matrix, with a strong presence of nuclear, hydroelectric or natural gas energy (which, even if it is a fossil fuel, emits approximately half of CO₂ than coal).
In these regions, add more solar energy barely moves the needle of emissions, because the energy that solar panels move was already relatively clean. In a world with limited resources, this type of optimizations can help investments in clean energy as effective as possible. But there are still patterns that can only detect AI.
The contagion effect. One of the most fascinating contributions in the study is that the model was able to quantify effects that until now were difficult to measure, revealing counterintuitive dynamics in the electricity grid. For example, the study shows that installing solar panels in one region can clean the air of another.
He California case It is paradigmatic: an increase of 15% in its solar capacity not only benefited the State, but reduced daily emissions in the northwest region in 913 tons and in the southwest in impressive 1,942 tons Conclusion: Investing in solar energy in the Arizona desert could be one of the most efficient ways to reduce emissions in Oregon.
Image | Rawpixel
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings