Climate change is making weather more extreme in Vermont and across the country. In a lot of places, our electricity infrastructure — poles and wires — are pretty exposed. Nationwide, our power grid was built for less stormy times.
And that’s a problem, as Vermont and other places look to power more and more of our heat and transportation with electricity from renewable sources.
More from Brave Little State: How much does Vermont's power grid depend on fossil fuels?
So how do we make our grid more reliable at the same time we’re trying to make it cleaner? Some people say creating “microgrids” could help.
A microgrid is a little section that can pop off from the rest of the grid during a power outage to become an island. It makes its own electricity and stores it.
For the people connected to a microgrid, they don’t even know there’s been a power outage.
In the past, places like hospitals or schools may have had diesel backup generators that did this. But a recent experiment in Vermont is showing that you can do the same thing using batteries and energy from the sun.
How does it all work? We break it down above.
NOVA's national Climate Across America initiative has been made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, deepening its efforts to build the capacity of local PBS stations to tell climate solution science stories that have an impact in their communities.
