Jared Blumenfeld: Sustainable future requires electrical smart grid

By Jared Blumenfeld – Special to The Bee

Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, April 27, 2008
Story appeared in FORUM section, Page E5

Print | E-Mail | Comments (1) | addthis_pub = ‘sacbee’; addthis_offset_left = -2;

When it comes to global warming, the future is rapidly approaching. Electricity generation and distribution produces 40 percent of all the carbon dioxide emissions in the United States.

Despite a great deal of talk about climate change, the electric power industry’s nationwide CO2 emissions have risen 5.9 percent since 2002 and a whopping 11.7 percent since 1997. We need energy solutions – and we need them now.

California has taken the bold step of requiring that 20 percent of all our electricity come from renewable sources by 2010 and is now looking at increasing that target to 33 percent renewable energy mix by 2030. This is excellent news. However, the grid that transports energy is itself part of the problem.