By Selene Lawrence, deputy director of community development at Sullivan Solar Power
It is not just Californians that are opening their morning newspapers to images of smoldering trees, menacing flames and fleeing families. The increase of wildfires has become a worldwide problem, with growing numbers of deadly incidents recorded from California to Greece and Indonesia. There is a global consensus among the scientific community that the increasing severity and occurrence of wildfires is directly linked to climate change. Clean renewables like solar are already hard at work to reverse this phenomenon in its tracks.
While the immediate source of wildfires can be linked to human activity, such as the arsonist behind the recent Holy Fire in Southern California, or natural occurrences like lightning; their intensity and likelihood to develop are linked specifically to climate change. For much of the western United States, projections show that an average temperature increase of 1°C annually would increase the median burned area per year as much as 600%. Areas like California, the Mediterranean and Australia have been struggling through decades-long drought, making the landscape especially dry. Parched forests as well as high temperatures and strong winds are fuel to keep fires burning faster and longer. According to the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, large wildfires in the United States burn more than twice the area they did in 1970, and the average wildfire season is 78 days longer.
How is solar the hero in this story? It starts with the fundamentals. Solar power is an alternative to our traditional energy resources of coal, oil and natural gas, which have been furiously emitting greenhouses gases since the 19th century. Greenhouse gases trap radiation from the sun in our atmosphere, thereby warming the earth and trapping noxious gases. This phenomenon has led to many dangerous consequences like rising global temperatures, increases in extreme weather, extended drought and ocean acidification. If we want to break this harmful cycle of pollution, we need to dramatically alter the way this world generates electricity. Clean energy veers us off the path to environmental catastrophe and a drastically altered climate. After all, solar panels don’t have tail pipes.
Solar plays an important role, offering an alternative infrastructure of energy generation and distribution that will protect vulnerable communities from different threats of fire and disaster. Southern Californians will acutely remember the Witch, Guejito and Rice fires of 2007, which occurred in San Diego. These devastating fires that destroyed 1,300 homes and killed two people were found to have been caused by San Diego Gas & Electric’s (SDG&E) power lines that had not received necessary maintenance. To add insult to injury, after 10 years of litigation, a judge ruled that SDG&E cannot charge ratepayers for the fires they started, and the utility continues to fight that case.
“Fossil fuels are, as the name states, outdated, a way of the past,” said Daniel Sullivan, founder and president of Sullivan Solar Power. “Smaller community microgrids, as well as grid independence where solar can be produced and stored onsite and shared within the community, are safer options to the vast network of our current dirty energy-fueled grids.”
Sullivan Solar Power’s vision is to fundamentally change the way we generate electricity. The company is actively developing solar+storage projects in Southern California and has been working for nearly 15 years to remove entire streets from the grid.
What happens when disaster does strike? Coal-fired plants and natural gas pipelines don’t have the resiliency of renewables when fires, floods, hurricanes and other extreme disasters occur. In the case of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans were left without power for months, with power lines down and energy supplies exhausted. Several solar battery companies were able to reach remote villages and provide communities with microgrid solutions, supplying on-site solar energy, powering their washing machines and refrigerators and storing excess energy in batteries for use during cloudy days and throughout the night. These microgrids, initially introduced as an immediate solution to the energy crisis, will continue to serve the communities long into the future, all the while helping to reduce the world’s carbon footprint.
While we can hope to see a decrease in reports of wildfires and other natural disasters in our morning papers, we also acknowledge that hope isn’t always enough. What we can do in addition is be proactive. As more aging energy infrastructure becomes damaged, we have the opportunity not just to repair, but to replace. We should be rebuilding our communities with a smarter approach to energy, including microgrids, resilient blends of renewables, and solar standing at the forefront.
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