Electrical Infrastructure Stocks

Why It Matters

To go 100% clean energy, we need a bigger and better power grid.

Electrifying everything is the answer to solving climate change. Thankfully, renewable sources like solar and wind are quickly expanding their capacity worldwide. But to reliably provide clean and renewable electricity to every household and organization in the world, we need a power grid that's much bigger. 

The power grid is the dynamic network of electricity generators, transmission lines, substations, and transformers that power a region. 85% of the world relies on the electricity that comes from the grid. As it exists today, the power grid generates most of its electricity using fossil fuels. It also generates precisely enough electricity at the exact moment when demand for electricity rises. Importantly, this means that the power grid today can't easily accommodate solar PV and wind energy because these sources are intermittent.

So the power grid needs to expand to support a renewable transition. First and foremost, it needs more energy storage so that solar energy generated during the day can be used at night. The electric grids of different regions also need to be connected, so that electricity from Texas in the summer can be used to power cities in Minnesota in the winter. 

There's a lot of work to be done, fast.

According to the International Energy Agency, existing grids need to be extended by 16 million kilometers over the next decade, 80% more than over the past decade, to connect all new sources of electricity including renewables. All of this will require more than $400 billion per year in investments over the next decade.  

These companies are making it happen.

Utility companies, as well as original equipment manufacturers are all key players in making this happen. The Climate Index includes companies that help expand the grid that are traded on US stock markets and that derive more revenue from this Drawdown solution than from revenue that depends on fossil fuels. And as always, we don't include punny stocks whose share prices were less than $0.50 in our last update. 

If you are a Carbon Collective member, you own all of these companies through the Climate Index.