Researchers at Stanford University have come up with an innovative way to map the energy resilience of localities across the U.S. — and their findings could have huge implications for disaster preparedness.
Tens of millions of U.S. households experience extended power outages each year, per a university writeup in Tech Xplore. With the frequency and severity of storms increasing due to the warming climate, officials are seeking ways to harden energy grids against threats such as hurricanes and wildfires.
One solution is to bury power lines underground, where they are safe from the high winds and falling trees associated with storms. However, cost is a high barrier to burying power lines nationwide, and a lack of data has made it difficult for officials to determine where investments in upgraded energy infrastructure would be most useful.
That's where the Stanford team came in. The researchers combined data on the distribution of buried power lines with information about power outage locations to determine the areas most in need of upgrades.
"A resilient energy infrastructure is crucial for addressing increasing extreme weather and climate risks," the researchers wrote in a preprint paper. As such, they have made their data available in an interactive map and condensed their findings into a scrollable data story.
Undergrounding power lines could have reduced outages during the Great Texas Freeze of 2021, the October 2017 nor'easter in New England, and the California wildfires of 2019, the researchers found.
Areas with a lot of buried power lines tend to be urban and have high average household incomes, they noted. Areas with high vulnerability to natural hazards also tend to have many underground power lines, suggesting that some localities are already bracing for increasingly severe weather events.
One way to protect against blackouts is to invest in solar panels alongside battery backups. Check out TCD's Solar Explorer to connect with vetted installers and save up to $10,000 on solar installations by curating competitive bids. The Solar Explorer has $0-down subscription programs, such as Palmetto's LightReach program, which can slash your utility rates by up to 20%.
Solar, when paired with an upgraded HVAC system, can also massively decrease your heating and cooling costs. TCD's HVAC Explorer is a great place to start finding the right affordable system for your home, saving you up to 50% on home heating and cooling costs.
Finally, to see what proportion of power lines have been undergrounded in your county, check out Stanford's incredibly detailed interactive map.
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