US urged to adopt a two-way distribution grid

June 30, 2022

An influential think tank has called on the United States of America to establish a national two-way distribution grid as the key to adopting 100% renewable energy.

The new report by Future in Review (FiRe) says innovative technology such as the eleXsys Energy solution “should be deployed as quickly as possible to communities across the United States.”

eleXsys Energy has created an advanced power electronics device with integrated artificial intelligence software applications that enable clean energy producers to feed multiple times more energy back into existing electricity distribution grids than was previously possible.

This turns today’s legacy one-way grids into two-way smart grids without the need to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure and equipment upgrades.

The report titled ‘100% Renewable – An Action Plan for US Energy Independence’ recognises that eleXsys has delivered a game-changing solution removing the biggest obstacle to the adoption of renewable energy systems.

FiRe pursues technology-driven solutions to major global challenges, leveraging industry experts to generate action plans focused on the intersection of technology, economics and geopolitics.

The group spent a year engaging with renewable-energy industry leaders, including eleXsys Energy, to consider ways to transition the US grid to 100% renewables.

It found: “The central innovation that unlocks most of the potential outlined in this plan is the establishment of a truly two-way distribution grid.

“Until now, engineering limitations and utility policy throughout most of the United States have capped the amount of energy that a home or business owner can contribute to the shared distribution grids in their communities.

“However, recent advances in energy storage, load management, and optimization have emerged that could allow institutional and individual consumers to contribute nearly 100% of the power they produce to their community energy supply without expensive upgrades to local distribution grid infrastructure.”

Three key policy changes sit at the heart of the transition strategy proposed by FiRe:

• Federal and state grants should preference financing for utilities, businesses, and consumers installing these and other technologies as part of an active transition to a fully two-way distribution grid
• Federal investments and loans should prioritize scaling US manufacturing and production of these innovations
• State regulators should adjust incentive structures to support utilities as they decarbonize and adopt new business models

These tactics would create the framework for “an incentive structure that would empower individual Americans to make money while increasing US energy independence” and meeting short-term climate goals.

It would also “protect our electricity infrastructure against cyber attacks and increasingly volatile weather patterns.”

The US is currently the world’s second largest source of greenhouse gases, emitting 15% of global greenhouse gases every year.

The FiRe report concluded that transitioning the US grid to 100% renewables could result in a national 89% emissions reduction that would represent a 13% drop globally.