“We just want our children to survive”
Source: Kira Vermond · MARS · | December 20, 2021
Improving the energy grid is the world’s biggest hurdle on the road to net zero, says climate-tech wizard Joshua Wong. His company, Opus One Solutions, is already charging to the finish line.
Source: PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MONICA GUAN
Forget self-driving cars, super computers and the International Space Station. Ask Joshua Wong, president, CEO and founder of Opus One Solutions, what the most complex human invention created since the 19th century is and he has a surprising answer: the grid that brings electricity to homes and businesses.
“We can’t put electricity in an oil tanker and just ship it from one place to another. Electricity is one of those very complicated — and taken-for-granted — things that needs to be generated and consumed instantaneously,” says Wong.
Now, the grid is becoming even more complicated as utilities begin the serious job of transitioning from fossil fuel to clean energy for the masses.
New technologies, from solar panels to wind turbines and battery storage to electric-vehicle charging, aren’t the issue. In the past few years, they’ve gone through tremendous innovation and growth as prices drop. (In most regions, renewables are now cheaper than electricity from fossil fuels). But, says Wong, electrical storage potential is still limited so it’s difficult to use these clean sources of energy in an efficient way. The grid itself becomes the bottleneck — at least for now.
As we transition to cleaner energy sources, it’s critical that we innovate and evolve this infrastructure,” he explains. “The grid is the biggest problem to solve.”
Wong, an engineer, has been solving the energy sector’s problems for years. Working for Toronto Hydro, he was on a policy and regulatory advisory committee leading up to the Ontario Green Energy and Green Economy Act in 2009, and consulted on smart-grid policies for the federal government. With that inside view, he knew exactly what changes were needed to make the antiquated grid more reliable, sustainable, efficient and cost-effective.