This December 2021 report by David Theodore of Climate Resilient Internet (CRi) highlights that microgrids remain the future for resilient, sustainable energy, but cost is a stumbling block. This paper confronts that challenge with a stronger value proposition; one that taps a new revenue stream and maximizes client resilience. In this new vision, microgrids extend resilience to mission critical Internet and cloud data, where extreme weather is causing blackouts so consequential, they must be avoided at all cost. Internet resilience isn’t so simple, because data—even from a user’s Wi-Fi or their smartphone—relies on untold miles of fiber optic infrastructure, all of which is vulnerable to weather, and dependent on the electric grid. However, a new solution has emerged, called “Climate Resilient Internet”— based on a new certification for climate change and operating on the same “resilience is local” principle as the microgrid. One of the compelling facts put forward is that the savings from a single prolonged internet outage could fund an entire microgrid deployment (typically $2-$4 million/MW).
Key words: Energy Management, Internet of Things (IoT), Smart Grid, Microgrid