#MoveTheDate
3
Days
Global implementation of smart energy meters would reduce carbon emissions from energy generation by 5%, and move Earth Overshoot Day by 3 days.
What is the solution?
Smart meters help energy provider and consumer systems communicate to adjust prices in real time. Implementing smart energy meters allows for a more dynamic and flexible energy grid that makes better use of renewable energy.
This solution improves our resource security in the energy category.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Higher rates during peak times and lower rates during off-peak times help ‘smooth out’ peaks in energy consumption. This also reduces the need for highly polluting ‘peaker’ plants, which operate only at peak times.
How is it scalable?
Only recently have smart meters been deployed and their use is still uncommon. With more widespread use and dynamic pricing, customers (especially larger ones) are incentivized to shift energy consumption towards times of day when renewable energy makes up a larger share of production.
What is the solution?
Smart meters help energy provider and consumer systems communicate to adjust prices in real time. Implementing smart energy meters allows for a more dynamic and flexible energy grid that makes better use of renewable energy.
This solution improves our resource security in the energy category.
How does it #MoveTheDate?
Higher rates during peak times and lower rates during off-peak times help ‘smooth out’ peaks in energy consumption. This also reduces the need for highly polluting ‘peaker’ plants, which operate only at peak times.
How is it scalable?
Only recently have smart meters been deployed and their use is still uncommon. With more widespread use and dynamic pricing, customers (especially larger ones) are incentivized to shift energy consumption towards times of day when renewable energy makes up a larger share of production.
Image Credit: Tonyglen14 via Flickr
There is still enormous potential for improving smart metering. If the meters integrated more fully with energy-demanding applications, they could be switched on automatically when electricity is abundant, and turned off or minimized, when it is scarce.
Beyond automations, people who are informed by the various uses of energy can make better choices – the same way people with efficiency monitors in cars are able to increase the mileage of their vehicles.
Building on this solution, appliances could also be developed to handle more irregular powering. For instance, refrigerators could add thermal mass that would allow them to bridge anticipated electricity limitations; air-conditioning could produce ice during electricity abundance. Washing machines, if not time critical, could be in waiting mode until electricity becomes more abundant.
There’s no benefit in waiting!
Acting now puts you at a strategic advantage in a world increasingly defined by ecological overshoot. Countless solutions exist that #MoveTheDate. They’re creative, economically viable, and ready to deploy at scale. With them, we can make ourselves more resilient and #MoveTheDate of Earth Overshoot Day. If we move the date 6 days each year, humanity can be out of overshoot before 2050.