One in four U.S. households experiences a power outage each year. Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory are working on technology they hope will help fix electric grids: drones. They're betting that 2-ft. large drones connected to "smart" electric grids are a cost-effective step to a more electrified future. Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave. Have an idea for a future episode? We'd love to know — email us at shortwave@npr.org! Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
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Hey shortwavers.
So a lot of you might know this, but if you're going to tackle climate change, we have to stop relying on fossil fuels.
And if we're going to stop relying on fossil fuels, we're going to have to start using a lot more renewable energy.
And in order to switch over to renewable energy, we're going to need to electrify everything, which is great.
Electrification can create a lot of efficiency and a lot of jobs.
But as anyone who has experienced a blackout can tell you, the electrical grid is not perfect.
So a key part of a successful electrification will be solving the problem of power outages.
Because get this, one in every four households experiences a power outage annually.
That's why today I'm talking to Peter Fiore.
He's an electrical engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
He lives in Fort White, Florida, and he's experienced his share of power outages like Hurricane Helene back in September.
Helene was a massive storm and she came ashore about 40 miles away from where we live.
So at our place, our winds topped out at about 90 miles an hour.
And we had trees that fell and all sorts of stuff like that.