The American power grid is about to get a big boost.
What’s happening:
- The United States Department of Energy has announced new grants of $2.2B USD to fund upgrades to existing power grids across the country
Why it matters:
- With renewable energy infrastructure on the rise, more grid-scale power storage is needed in the United States to provide low carbon electricity to residential and commercial buildings
By the numbers:
- The new grant funding will go towards supporting power grid projects in 18 states and expanding power lines by approximately 600 miles
- In total, the new power grids upgrades in the United States are expected to add 4,300 megawatts of energy capacity
Going deeper:
- One of the biggest new demands on the existing power grid in the United States of America is the rise of electric vehicle adoption as well as the surge in venture backed startups who require cloud computing to build artificial intelligence models, which has led to a flurry of new investments into data centres and even technology giants such as Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) acquiring a data centre campus powered entirely by nuclear energy
The intrigue:
- One of the most important materials for upgrading power grids and expanding energy storage capacity is copper, due to its high electrical conductivity and thermal efficiency
