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Friday, December 07, 2018

Can the US's electricity sector be climate proofed ?

Because some of the effects of climate change are unavoidable and already occurring, the electricity sector clearly needs to better prepare to withstand and recover from those effects. Some of the most common adaptation measures are known as “hardening” measures, as they can protect equipment from weather-related damage : 

• Building protective sea walls • Restoring naturally occurring protections, such as sand dunes, beaches, and wetlands • Elevating or relocating important electrical equipment along the coasts, to protect it from flooding • Burying transmission and distribution lines underground where feasible • Reinforcing aboveground poles with sturdier materials, to reduce damage during storms and wildfires.

But measures to protect one company’s energy infrastructure would cost as much as $120 billion over 20 years, although they could avert $200 billion in losses.

Spurred by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program to buy more efficient appliances and other products, Americans saved $26 billion on their electricity bills—and electricity equivalent to that used by 35 million average homes—in 2012.

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