Is the US Energy Sector Prepared for Increasingly Powerful Tropical Storms?

When Hurricane Ian slammed into
parts of Cuba and the west coast of Florida in late September 2022, it
left a record-breaking trail of destruction across much of the state; it then
regained energy in the Atlantic Ocean and wreaked additional havoc in more the
Southeastern US and beyond.

The category 5 super storm was the
costliest
in Florida history — racking up a bill of over $109 billion — and among the
most powerful hurricanes to hit the United States.

Unfortunately, both Ian’s intensity and cost could easily be surpassed in
the future as our warming
oceans
become increasingly capable of supercharging more storms.

Not long after Ian tore through Florida, professor of climate science Mathew
Barlow and
research professor Suzana J.
Camargo published
an
article
in Columbia Climate School’s State of the Planet — explaining how warmer
oceans produce more evaporation, which translates to more water being available
to the atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere holds more water, allowing more rain —
which means more heat is released, making winds more powerful.

In a world of temperatures 2°C above the preindustrial average, which is
where we’re
heading,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration modeling
studies project an
average increase of approximately 10-15 percent for rainfall rates within
roughly 100 kilometers of a storm; and the global proportion of intense cyclones
(category 4 and 5) such as these is projected to increase by 1-10 percent.

In layman’s terms, the coming years will bring a world that is hotter, rainier
and windier — with extreme-weather events that cause a lot more damage than most
of us have experienced to date, most of which is the result of human industrial
activities that have destabilized our atmosphere.

Millions left powerless

Hurricanes and terrestrial storms often wreak havoc on power grids — one of many
reasons they can be so costly. Just recently, powerful storms ripped through
parts of Texas, leaving over 100,000 homes and
businesses
without electricity amidst an early-season
heatwave.

When asked if US energy systems are currently resilient enough to withstand the
increase in powerful storms, Laura
Zapata, CEO and co-founder of
Clearloop — a Silicon
Ranch company working to decarbonize the
economy by expanding equitable access to solar
energy
in communities across the US — told Sustainable Brands® just a few reasons
why the country’s aging, centralized energy systems are vulnerable to
extreme-weather events: “The systems themselves are prone to overload during
times of high demand, leading to shutdowns and an increase in prices. They also
rely on imported fuel, making them vulnerable to supply chain breakdowns and
shifting foreign policy priorities and circumstances.”

In contrast, she pointed out the efficacy of renewables in an increasingly
climate-challenged world, saying: “When Winter Storm
Elliott
hit the region powered by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in December
of 2022, TVA saw the highest winter energy demand in its 90-year history.
Silicon Ranch’s [renewable energy] projects in the region continued to operate
at peak performance throughout the event, reducing the need for power cuts and
increasing system resiliency. Silicon Ranch’s Bolivar Solar
Farm
was able to power over 300 homes during the storm.”

Are renewables strong enough to withstand hurricanes?

However, these sources of energy may not actually be so resilient in the face of
increasingly powerful, and frequent, tropical storms. While they offer numerous,
long-term benefits — such as mitigating climate change by reducing air pollution
and carbon emissions — solar
panels
and wind
turbines
are directly exposed to the natural environment, making them more vulnerable to
catastrophic, hurricane-force winds: As a recent
article in Nature
pointed out, “historical data from the US East Coast and the Caribbean
highlight that current solar panels broadly perform below the designed
reliability requirement during hurricane events.”

Another issue is that environment-sensitive renewable-energy systems can face a
longer and more tedious recovery after a major hurricane has hit. Such was the
case of Punta
Lima
— a wind farm in Puerto Rico that was severely damaged during Hurricane
Maria in 2017, losing half of its turbine
blades and having to
undergo an extensive rebuilding process.

Still, the US Energy Information Administration has
stated that — aside from a few
exceptions, including Punta Lima — “most renewable-generating facilities
survived Hurricane Maria with modest amounts of damage.”

Keeping the lights on

The increasing intensity and frequency of climate-fueled extreme-weather events,
especially hurricanes, presents a serious challenge for both the conventional
and renewable energy sectors. But since the former has been the main
driver
of these evermore powerful winds and rains tearing through much of the globe, it
is unlikely that it can meaningfully contribute to solutions.

A widespread shift to
renewables,
on the other hand, will be an important step forward — not only do
renewable-energy systems create considerably less climate-changing emissions
than fossil fuels; the decentralized nature of renewables offers an additional,
fail-safe advantage over our conventional, centralized power
systems.
As the authors of the
Nature article conclude,
while large-scale integration of renewable energy will be fraught with
challenges in the short term, “the inherently distributed character of renewable energy presents
unique opportunities to establish climate-resilient power systems” and
“achieving a climate-resilient power system in a net-zero future requires
approaches for harnessing the inherent potential of distributed renewables
through forming microgrids.”

Now, as Hurricane
Beryl
barrels toward Mexico and Texas after devastating the eastern
Caribbean and Jamaica, it’s imperative that energy sector
decision-makers switch from defense to offense — and acknowledge renewables’
role in a resilient energy future.