Solar homes shine in summer, struggle in winter blackouts

As winter storms and summer time warmth waves more and more stress the nation’s energy grids, Stevens researchers have developed a brand new technique to establish the houses most susceptible to blackouts—with out even visiting them.

The timing could not be extra essential. With greater than 1 / 4 of U.S. houses already absolutely electrical, and solar installations set to triple in the course of the subsequent 5 years, understanding vulnerabilities has turn out to be essential for emergency planning and public security.

“We’re racing toward electrification to combat climate change, but we must also understand the risks involved,” says Stevens professor Philip Odonkor, who led the analysis challenge. “So, what happens to these solar and electric homes when the power goes out?”

Summer season power, winter blues

Odonkor, with current graduates and AI summer time fellows Andrew Majowicz M.Eng. ’24 and Chetan Popli M.S. ’24, got down to reply that query.

In a brand new research printed within the Journal of Smart Cities and Societythey discover the way forward for electrified American houses by leveraging AI and analyzing Division of Vitality (DOE) building-stock information.

The group dug deep into the vitality patterns of 129,000 single-family homes throughout eight states. Their objective? Uncover the hidden vitality “signatures” that distinguish absolutely electrified houses—these powered completely by electrical energy—from people who use a mixture of vitality sources.

They did not cease there, nonetheless. For recognized mixed-energy houses, the group additionally labored to pinpoint precisely which home equipment have made the shifts to electrical energy and which have not.

After processing and analyzing the dataset, Odonkor’s group discovered that houses’ vitality signatures weren’t solely distinguishable, however additionally they granted essential insights into the resilience of particular person houses.

Photo voltaic-powered houses, for instance, demonstrated spectacular resilience throughout summer time warmth waves. Nonetheless, they proved remarkably susceptible throughout winter storms; in actual fact, absolutely electrified houses had been almost 3 times extra susceptible to winter outages, in comparison with these drawing energy from combined vitality sources.

“Think about Texas in 2021, when millions lost power during a winter storm,” Odonkor explains. “As more homes go fully electric, we need to prepare for these scenarios.” “Solar panels help in summer, but they can’t meet the intense heating demands that occur during winter blackouts.”

New strategies to tell planning and response

The research wasn’t solely pathbreaking for its findings; it was solely notable for the progressive AI-powered strategies that had been used to conduct the analyses.

Odonkor’s group developed novel machine-learning fashions able to figuring out a person residence’s vitality programs and vulnerabilities with over 95% accuracy, utilizing solely its energy-consumption patterns. The brand new strategy permits utilities and emergency responders to pinpoint at-risk households throughout complete neighborhoods, with out the necessity for invasive surveys or inspections.

“Until now, we actually had to go door-to-door to determine if a home was fully electric,” notes Odonkor. “Now, we can automatically identify the most vulnerable homes while still safeguarding people’s privacy. This will shift the way we prepare for and respond to extreme weatherenabling faster, and more targeted action when it’s needed most.”

The research’s potential advantages lengthen past empowering particular person owners. As cities work to construct local weather resilience, these new instruments may assist neighborhood emergency-service models prioritize responses throughout outages. It may additionally help urban planners within the long-term improvement of extra resilient housing inventory and neighborhoods.

That is key, as a result of communities nationwide are grappling with a one-two punch of getting old energy grids subjected to extra frequent episodes of extreme climate.

As we more and more transition to electrical houses to deal with local weather change, the group’s findings function a warning that we are going to want implement methods that shield susceptible photo voltaic and electrical households throughout winter emergencies.

“The path to sustainable cities isn’t just about going green; it’s about staying resilient,” he emphasizes. “As we shape the future of urban housing, understanding vulnerabilities isn’t just a luxury—it’s essential to keeping communities safe.”