The University of Wisconsin EnergyHub sponsored a conference on Friday on the future of energy and the potential for greening the grid.
The event featured a variety of speakers, from the state public utility commission to a professionally trained futurist. I learned a lot of really interesting stuff. Some highlights include that the future of wind and solar energy depends on the future of batteries, that building a smart, efficient grid brings privacy and security concerns, and that several local companies have devised some really interesting ways to increase their sustainability.
Many of us take the constant presence of electricity for granted. Whenever we want it, we flip a switch, and the power is there, waiting to charge a laptop or crisp some cold bread into toast. However, the tricky thing about the electricity is that we continuously have to be making as much as we are using. Make too much, we can’t store it. Make too little, we’d have blackouts. So forecasting precisely how much electricity is needed every day, and scaling production to that need is critical to a functioning power grid.