Divine Distribution: Integrating an enhanced electrical grid into our built environment
Last week, I had a springtime epiphany while driving along the county roads of Prince Edward County. Beyond the signs for farm fresh eggs, wineries and real estate signs, four distinct but interrelated locations came into my focus, representing a potential for a radically greener regional economy, opportunities for energy-related innovation, and future investment in climate technology. The four sites include the Picton cement plant (operated by Heidelberg Materials), a stone quarry facing the plant across County Road 49, a 15-acre section of agricultural land that failed to get approval for a battery energy storage facility and a 100-acre solar farm just south of the Picton Transformer Station. Combined with the current development pressures in the County, these connected elements form the basis for a greener future and a pretext for an integrated approach to a viable pathway towards a post-carbon Ontario economy.
My professional expertise is on the built environment, not energy policies. As an architect, I look at connecting the dots to real-world challenges, observing and asking questions for answers, often hiding in plain sight. This article is about linking an innovative energy policy with successful planning for a rural economy.
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Let's begin with the Picton Transformer Station along County 5 and a recent proposal to build a 250-megawatt battery energy storage system (BESS) across the road that was rejected by the Council in January 2023. Two smaller battery energy storage proposals (at 3MW each) failed to receive Council support a month later.
Based on the information provided by Compass Energy Consulting, where we are with BESS technologies with associated risks to the environment–and limited fire services of the County– Council's decision was justified. However, the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) estimates that Ontario must double its generating capacity from 42,000 MW to 88,000 MW by 2050 to meet growing demand driven by economic growth, electrification, and population increase. Battery energy storage must be one of many essential tools for achieving this trajectory. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the Ontario government to support and ensure that municipalities have the necessary infrastructure to meet future electricity demand. We should refrain from offloading this responsibility to local councillors.
Battery storage systems and the future of our electrical grid
BESS technologies aim to reduce or offset peak loads when they occur on the electrical distribution system and increase customer reliability in the community in case of an outage. Natural gas, a potent source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), is often used to generate additional or backup electricity during peak hours. We want to phase out natural gas electricity production altogether and battery storage makes for an important replacement, in addition to becoming an increasingly integral part of an electrical grid that can store renewable energy production.
Compass Energy Consulting and Abundant Solar Energy failed to receive Council support because they couldn't provide adequate assurances their proposals wouldn't explode or go up in flames, injuring or killing employees and volunteers from an already stretched fire services while contaminating aquifers, rivers, nearby agricultural lands and protected woodlots. Never mind that installing hundreds of shipping container-sized battery storage components would remain an eyesore. However, the failed proponents were correct in stating the Ontario government's goal is to create a minimum of 1,500MW of energy storage–and that battery energy storage is an evolving technology vital to the future of a renewable energy-driven grid.
One element of a holistic approach
Ontario's nuclear and hydroelectric energy-producing capacity accounts for 51% and 25% of its output, making the province's electrical grids one of the greenest in North America and comparing favourably to other countries. Over 90% of Ontario's electricity comes from "non-GHG emitting" sources.
The recently published Powering Ontario's Growth: Ontario's Plan for a Clean Energy Future outlines the province's current energy landscape, what's driving electricity demand and strategies needed to meet current and future demand. Although the Province has a comprehensive approach toward an integrated energy plan, it fails to consider how rural and urban planning will incorporate such a plan. Building new infrastructure--whether in cities or rural environments--needs to integrate new technologies to achieve a clean and sustainable future. New infrastructure inevitably includes energy storage, distributed energy systems, augmenting renewable energy sources, fostering Indigenous collaboration, and expanding transmission infrastructure.
Prince Edward County was right to refuse the BESS projects, if only because they cannot currently monitor, regulate, and ensure the safety of the proposed battery storage facilities. And it remains the responsibility of the Ontario government to support local governments through their integration of BESS facilities into the built environment and ensure their safe construction and maintenance. It is shortsighted to do otherwise.
What about the nuclear option? And hydrogen?
We hear a lot of discussions about nuclear energy as a reliable energy source, and hydrogen as a promising one but it doesn't make sense to pursue either of these avenues when the world is advancing so much in other areas. While Canada may be historically competitive in nuclear energy, the costs to produce and maintain nuclear energy facilities far outweigh the benefits of renewables like wind and solar. The Ontario Clean Air Alliance Research estimates that it will cost 13.7 cents/kWh to produce nuclear power in Ontario by 2027. Meanwhile, the current price for solar energy (3.8-5.6 cents/kWh), hydro (5.4 cents/kWh) and wind (3.5-6.8 cents/kWh) remain far more cost-effective.
The Ontario government is dedicating billions of dollars to expand new nuclear energy capacity while refurbishing existing facilities, notably, a new 4,800 MW facility at the Bruce nuclear site and building several warehouse-sized small modular reactors (SMR), notably one producing 300MW at the existing Darlington nuclear facility with plans for three more SMRs, potentially adding up to 1,200 MW. SMR technology could make Ontario a key player in producing cost-competitive green hydrogen. Still, investing in SMRs is less effective than what we see in the U.S., where wind and solar are producing gigawatts of energy.
Investment in hydrogen projects, including the Niagara Hydrogen Centre led by Atura Power and announced in April 2022, is planned to significantly increase low-carbon hydrogen production for various uses with the potential to produce 15,000 MW of hydrogen generating capacity by 2050. But the money going into this technology is laughable. In February 2023, the Ontario government launched the Hydrogen Innovation Fund, which will see a miserable $15 million invested over the next three years to develop hydrogen power and storage. To provide some context, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations selected seven hubs last fall to receive a combined $7 billion to fund clusters of hydrogen production, distribution and consumption, essentially kickstarting a nonexistent clean hydrogen industry that, if executed properly, could decarbonize such things as steel production, heavy industry, aviation, shipping and more. The hubs carry political and economic weight too, as they could generate $40 billion in private investment across the U.S. and create more than 300,000 direct jobs.
Battery Storage and Renewable Energy
The Ontario government is advancing with battery storage and renewable energy. In October 2022, the Minister of Energy directed the IESO to target 2,500 MW of stand-alone energy storage resources. By May 2023, the IESO acquired seven new battery storage projects, representing 739 MW of new storage supply that could draw and store electricity during off-peak hours when power demand is low and intermittent renewable generation is high, thereby returning the power to the system at times of higher electricity demand. Five of these seven projects have partnered with Indigenous communities who control at least 50 percent. One example is the 250 MW Oneida Energy Storage Facility, scheduled to be operational in 2025, developed in partnership with the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation, Northland Power, NRStor and Aecon Group. The federal government provides an additional $50 million in funding through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Oneida will join three other facilities located in Hagersville (285MW), Ohsweken (250MW), and Napanee (250MW). The provincial government is going through the procurement stages of an additional 4,000 MW of new battery storage capacity, which is expected to be completed by April 2024.
These recent projects are supported through multiple levels of government to ensure their success. Could future opportunities in Prince Edward County be supported through similar financial support? Absolutely.
A rendering of the Oneida BESS facility.
An Integrated Approach to Energy Planning
Examining our government's approach to energy production through the lens of regional and urban planning is revelatory: there is no broader thinking about where new infrastructure will be located, or dispersed.. While Ontario is working towards an integrated energy strategy that emphasizes the importance of electrification and the transition to a clean, reliable, and affordable energy system, there needs to be more acknowledgment of how this will affect the development of our towns and cities. Other than providing cash rebates to homeowners who purchase heat pumps or minor home improvements, there needs to be more consideration towards meaningful financing and construction of next-generation buildings built to stringent performance standards or incorporating beneficial distributed energy resources such as photovoltaics or ground-source heat pumps. This is where the notion of distributed energy resources begins to become a strategic player in linking a stronger electrical grid with stronger action supporting regenerative growth, especially as it pertains to effective regional planning.
Operational in 2014, the Sunny Shores solar farm outside of Picton represents a distributed energy system.
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)
And that 100-acre solar farm I mentioned earlier? It and the hundreds of other photovoltaic panels installed on farmland or rooftops throughout the County are examples of distributed energy resources (DERs). DERs include photovoltaics, battery and energy storage technologies, electric vehicles, and other devices that generate, store, or control electricity loads and directly connect to the distribution system. They are cost-effective alternatives to conventional electricity distribution and associated infrastructure like pipes, poles, wires, and transformers– typical visuals for the city dweller. In more rural communities, they can have an even more noticeable presence. (This is where an electric-powered Ford F-150 Lightning can conceivably feed electricity back into the grid.) I'd like to see a world with fewer overhead wires and transformers along sidewalks or adjacent to playgrounds. I'd like to see a world with more solar farms too, but I also recognize that we need to better integrate DERs in our communities, which in turn have the potential to enable more forward-thinking architecture and landscape architecture design.
A recent IESO study estimated Ontario's current DER capacity at 10,000 MW, noting the significant economic potential for DERs to meet Ontario's emerging needs over the next decade, not to mention potential savings to consumers, building operators and municipalities who would love the chance to pursue more non-wire and non-pipeline alternatives. Think about servicing downed wires after a winter storm. Imagine if Ontario moves forward to ensure that Regulated Price Plan (RPP) net-metered customers, such as those with a rooftop solar installation, can have greater choice when selecting their electricity provider. At the same time, property owners who install a renewable source of energy generation can offset their electricity consumption from the grid through third-party ownership arrangements that could include leasing, renting and financing options with energy service providers that will make roof-top solar and other DERs accessible to more Ontarians looking to manage their energy costs better.
Global Solar Trends: California and Texas
In 2023, Texas overtook California in large-scale solar power capacity. With more solar power going into the grid, there is an increased need to store that energy with batteries. In 2024, Texas will increase its battery storage capacity with an anticipated 6.4 gigawatts (G.W.), according to the Energy Information Administration. Solar and battery storage will make up 81% of new U.S. electric-generating capacity in 2024, adding 14.3GW of battery storage alone, representing 23% of all new power plant capacity. To put that into perspective, that is equivalent to roughly 57 BESS facilities similar to the one rejected by Prince Edward County in 2023.
The reality is that battery energy storage is an increasingly significant part of the U.S. transition of its electricity system and a viable component facilitating a shift to low-carbon energy.
This brings me to the quarry of County Road 49 across from the Picton cement plant. Many startups are currently planning on using heat and rocks for long-term grid storage instead of batteries.
Rocks, including molten silicon or salt, ceramic particles, concrete and crushed rock are now seen as an economically possible thermal and energy storage medium, mainly because solar and wind power costs are decreasing dramatically.
In industries like steel, cement and chemical production, the massive amount of energy needed for their production requirements increases GHG emissions and overall costs. Heavy industry accounts for over one-quarter of global emissions and nearly 17 percent of all energy industry uses. Could the Picton cement plant benefit from a new era of thermal energy storage?
Absolutely, but maybe not tomorrow. I am not suggesting the Picton quarry become a thermal storage facility, but I am suggesting that building an innovative thermal storage plant adjacent to or near the quarry that could support the current cement plant and additional heavy industries powered by clean and renewable energy.
Prince Edward County is, after all, supported by the bedrock of the Verulam Formation and the upper and lower members of the Lindsay Formation–rock that has been quarried to produce lime for cement manufacture and other chemical uses. Could there be a new attempt to solve our climate crisis by harnessing the power of thermal storage? Could we find a way to use surplus renewable electricity to heat rocks and other materials with high thermal mass to store cheap, clean energy for later use, either as heat for industrial processes or to feed it back into the grid?
Bill Gates and global mining concerns are betting hundreds of millions of dollars someone can. Antora, Rondo, Brenmiller Energy and Echogen are examples of startups looking at industrial processes like cement, petrochemical production and smelting steel that require temperatures of 1,500°C or more. Those temperatures are typically achieved by burning fossil fuels, but using thermal storage fuelled by renewable energy--or maybe even clean hydrogen--is worth exploring. There is even innovation through thermophotovoltaics (TPVs), which transform heat energy into electricity. TPVs can reach 40% heat efficiency and are considered a "solid-state heat engine" that outperforms a typical steam turbine with a 33% efficiency.
The Picton cement plant could see itself being fed by renewable energy through the form of thermal storage or thermovoltaics in the near future, greatly reducing its carbon footprint and making it a model for greener heavy industry in not only Prince Edward County, but globally.
Bottom line?
We need to expand our electrical capacity in Ontario and plan on where that energy is being produced. Individual homeowners, municipalities, building operators and heavy industry can all benefit from an integrated system powered by renewable energy. Thermal and battery storage can help heavy industry decarbonize while boosting the potential for regenerative architecture and landscapes--places and spaces that produce more energy than they consume. Maximizing the potential of distributed energy systems could become the norm in places like Prince Edward County, kickstarting all kinds of entrepreneurial and creative innovations. The towns and rural landscapes of the County could only enhance its attractiveness as a tourist destination, a place for viable agricultural and resource-based innovation, and sustain a unique identity built upon regeneration amidst a global climate crisis..
