Renewable Energy Planning for Future with All-Electric Heating

In this 10-minute podcast from Minnesota Public Radio’s (MPR) Climate Cast, Anu Ramaswami, SHCN Director and professor at the University of Minnesota’s  Humphrey School of Public Affairs, discusses the local renewable energy planning implications of an increasingly electrified heating sector.

PODCAST AUDIO: You can access the MPR podcast here. 

The study discussed in this podcast uses real consumption data to model the optimal renewable generation mix to meet increased demand due to the electrification of residential heating systems. The scenarios modeled include battery and thermal energy storage options, an option that assumes no storage, and an option that overbuilds renewable supply by 150% of demand. The scenarios consider three representative residential block types per model and are run in four US cities—Fort Collins (CO), Minneapolis (MN), New York (NY), and Tallahassee (FL)— which are located in three different climate zones.

You can access a two-page brief of the study discusses in the podcast here.

This study was conducted by researchers with the Sustainable Healthy Cities Network, which is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The study was led by Vijay Modi at Columbia University. Additional researchers included Mo Li and Anu Ramaswmai at the University of Minnesota; Shengxi Yuan and Michael Waite at Columbia University; Wendall Stainsby and Dan Zimmerle at Colorado State University; and Kewei Xu and Richard Feiock at Florida State University.