Natural disasters have taken a heavy toll this year, with hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, and floods ravaging North America. In many cases the loss of electricity supplies created serious problems for communities, leading local governments to look at including energy resilience in their emergency management preparations. Some see solar power and battery storage technologies as an increasingly practical way to provide greater reliability and economics than diesel generators.
With funding from the US Department of Energy, the City and County of San Francisco and the City University of New York have completed in-depth feasibility studies on how to provide electricity to critical facilities like police and fire stations, hospitals, and shelters. The projects created a number of software tools and guidance documents to share their findings with other communities.
To learn more about the research in New York and San Francisco, please visit http://www.iscvt.org/energy-resilience.