A lot of companies and governments are committing to 100% renewable energy. But a target of that scope without considering the timing of energy use isn’t technically or economically optimal.

So how do we get 24/7 renewables for offices, data centers, municipal buildings, cities and eventually countries?

Calculating renewables consumption on an annual basis isn’t sufficient. If we really want to make them an effective decarbonization tool, we need to match them to real-time demand. And there are a lot of ways to do it. 

In the last few months, we’ve seen examples of large corporations taking the challenge head-on. We’ve also seen the negative consequences for a city when it failed to account for time of use.

Melissa Lott, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, joins co-host Shayle Kann for a deep dive into 24/7 renewables.

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