Microgrids are the future for resilient, sustainable energy, but cost is a stumbling block. ROI is hard to calculate and “even when a microgrid is cost effective, developing and proving a business case can be difficult.”
This paper confronts that challenge with a stronger value proposition; one that taps a new revenue stream and maximizes client resilience. In this new vision, microgrids extend resilience to mission critical internet and cloud data, where extreme weather is causing blackouts lasting days and weeks; blackouts so consequential, they must be avoided at all costs.
Internet resilience isn’t so simple, because data—even from your Wi-Fi or smartphone—relies on untold miles of fiber optic infrastructure, all of which is vulnerable to weather and dependent on the electric grid.
However, a new solution has emerged, called “Climate Resilient Internet.” It’s based on a new certification for climate change and operates on the same “resilience is local” principle as the microgrid. As such, it needs only local power and as a solution for mission critical data, nothing complements it better than a microgrid.