Exploring the shift towards renewable energy and battery tech for a sustainable future, with a focus on policy incentives and climate change mitigation.
Climate scientists have emphasized the role that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas play in the acceleration of climate change.
Reports from the United States and abroad have all cautioned that without swift change to reduce our fossil fuel dependence, our world will continue to see worsening temperatures, rising sea levels, extreme weather, poor air quality and other harmful effects from climate change.
But even with this knowledge, these non-renewable sources of energy still make up most of what we use to heat homes, power electricity and fuel cars across the planet. Policy has been one of the major drivers in changing our economic dependence on fossil fuels, but not all policy-driven approaches have the same impact.
“For a long time, environmental policy has been shaped by this idea that the most effective way to create change is to penalize polluters,” said Noah Kittner, PhD, assistant professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the Gillings School, “but things like carbon taxes haven’t really gained public support in the U.S.”
Companies that provide energy in the U.S. have struggled to transition to cleaner and renewable sources, in part because systems of energy generation that rely on fossil fuels are deeply entrenched in our power grid and in the business of providing energy.
Renewable technologies like wind and solar are viable alternatives for generation, but the sun isn’t always shining, and the wind isn’t always blowing, which makes batteries a cornerstone for effective implementation. Kittner focuses his research on the ways that we can develop and incentivize the adoption of batteries and alternative energy technologies that are viable, reliable and — importantly — cost effective for consumers and the utility companies that serve them.
Right now, those technologies are still expensive to adopt. Part of Kittner’s work involves examining how policies like the recent Inflation Reduction Act use tax incentives instead of penalties to support alternative energy innovation and adoption. For consumers, that might mean getting a tax credit to install a more efficient heating pump or buy an electric vehicle. For utilities, this might mean using tax investments to adopt solar technology for generation in addition to traditional technology instead of being forced to phase out fossil fuels altogether.
Both federal and state policy incentives have helped North Carolina grow its solar energy capacity to one of the largest in the country. Without further policy incentives, solar could become a less profitable option for utilities compared to other sources of energy that increase carbon emissions, and consumers will inevitably bear the cost burden.
“Most people understand that climate change is making energy more expensive because they see it reflected in the higher bills that come from using more air conditioning or heating,” Kittner explained. “If we really want use cleaner energy options to address these concerns, then we need better energy storage on top of energy efficient appliances and solar panels that can be added to the existing grid. And part of that involves looking at the policies that make these more affordable, because it does no good if all these solutions are only available for the wealthy.”
In addition to economic inequities, climate change could also deepen place-based inequities, especially for those living in parts of the U.S. that are most vulnerable to severe weather, flooding or poor air quality. Kittner says that policy incentives that encourage the use of batteries for energy storage can improve power grid resilience, leading to fewer blackouts and quicker response times during hurricanes, heat waves and other extreme events.
When most people think “battery,” they probably think about lithium-ion batteries, which are common in many electric vehicles, but Kittner’s research has found that even a fleet of electric school buses or delivery vehicles, when connected together, could serve as a battery to power a grid.
“For a long time, it’s been cost-prohibitive to just store electricity at every given moment, but now there are new options to use to try to avoid outages or other issues,” he said.
Renewable energy is a growing industry that policy can both support and regulate, which is why Kittner says it’s important for the public to get a big-picture perspective on the ways that policy shapes the entire energy system — not just the ones in their own households. The future holds promise for renewable energy technology, but development of these technologies is just the start. When we understand how energy affects the everyday lives of others, it gives us a broader picture of the policies that can support change to make our systems more sustainable and cost-effective and support a healthier environment for all.
