Will a warming climate and changing weather patterns lead to more grid blackouts and other energy disruptions? Answering that question requires studying both regional climate forecasts and local energy systems, including emerging renewable generation, storage, transmission lines, and demand forecasts. The lack of such studies is one reason why energy developers and grid operators rarely consider climate change when deciding where to build their next project. Now MIT researchers have created a way to make more climate-informed energy siting choices, and shown how it can be used to make energy systems more resilient and reduce blackouts. The researchers’ framework, described today in Nature Energy, combines fine-scale meteorology with detailed simulations of energy infrastructure.

It shows how the location of new energy projects will play a significant role in meeting f… “That limits insights for regional system planning and risk assessments.” For their paper, the MIT researchers chose to study Texas and New England because they provided two different climate types and energy systems. The team used fine-scale meteorology models and considered the influence of climate change on weather-related energy failures. “This study explores the joint, simultaneous impacts on multiple components of the energy system, similar to compound events studied in climate science,” Howland explains. “An extreme weather event can impact wind and solar generation and electricity demand all at the same time. Our hypothesis is that’s likely to be the biggest impact we’ll see from climate change on energy systems.” The researchers also considered the impact of using clim…