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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/chicago-bronzeville-neighborhood-scale-microgrid-energy-security-climate-change/>
"Take a stroll around Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood on a sun-filled spring
afternoon and it’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll come across Romanesque-style
greystones, classic brick three-flats and the sound of children deep in an
after-school game of kickball echoing from the back alleys. What you might not
be expecting is the brightly-colored mural emerging out of a vast, vacant lot
along South Michigan Avenue — and, more significantly, the massive electrical
battery that lies behind that painted cinder block wall.
That battery is but one part of the Bronzeville Community Microgrid, which
combines rooftop solar, natural gas-fired generators and batteries to produce
and store energy at a local level. Once fully operational, it will, in effect,
render the entire neighborhood “energy independent,” giving it the ability to
disconnect from and reconnect to Chicago’s citywide grid at will.
This will earn it the accolade of becoming the country’s first
neighborhood-scale microgrid, (although its founders, Commonwealth Edison, or
ComEd, point out that there could be other initiatives in the works of which
they are unaware), with energy experts suggesting it could serve as a model for
utilities and communities across the U.S."
Hopefully we’ll see more of this everywhere to increase resilience.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
