Are you ready to Electrify Washington?
Thank you first and foremost for being here, whether you are interested in learning how electrification can help you live a healthier and financially stable lifestyle. Address climate change, or you’re ready to make the switch and want further confirmation.
You are what makes the transformation to an all-electric and sustainable grid possible. Here we dive into how NWES leverages its renewable energy services to Elecetrify Washington and your life! We’ll discuss what that means, why we should electrify, and how to accomplish this mission.
What is Electrify Washington?
Electrify Washington is Northwest Electric and Solar’s mission to modernize Washington State’s electrical infrastructure for homes and businesses. Deploying renewable energy technologies to build a sustainable future where we control how we use, generate, and store our electricity.
A mission that we, fellow Washingtonians and electricians, identify as our duty to use our expertise to create a better future for all generations.
What does electrification mean?
Electrification means switching from fossil-fueled powered machinery to electric ones powered by renewable energy. Electrification can occur inside our homes, from our HVAC and kitchen appliances to how we move around in our transportation. Lastly, switching to electric appliances and vehicles will need cheap and clean energy to power it all. That’s where we and renewable energy technologies come in to help join this movement that will prepare us to fight against climate change and build a safer, sustainable, and energy-abundant future for our children and future generations.
Begin your electrification journey with Zwell!
Zwell is helping homes reach net-zero emissions by providing an actionable electrification plan. Highlighting the easier and more time-sensitive electrification steps a home can take, their custom approach to helping you achieve a net-zero and all-electric home will make this daunting task easier to understand and take action on.
Why Electrify Washington?
Climate change brings unprecedented instability, natural disasters, and hardships to societies worldwide; Washington State is no exception! Since the beginning of the 2020s, the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires, storms, and financial disruptions are making life more complicated, painting a gloomy picture for our future. Even Washingtonians used to perennial grey skies can see that these problems aren’t going away magically.
Electrification as a solution
With the electrification of our homes, transportation, and energy grid, we can significantly reduce carbon emissions, the energy required to run our society, and clean up our air and water supplies. Best of all, we don’t have to change how we live but improve our quality of life by being more connected to our electricity and how we generate, store, and use it in our daily life!
How Washington will electrify
We can begin this transformation by leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and several local and utility-based incentives to electrify our homes. Washington State’s average household benefits from the IRA are about $12,189. You can save money now on home projects that, once completed, will save you more money, increase your home value, and create a more comfortable and safe environment for you and everyone in the community to enjoy. Projects like weatherization, electrical panel upgrades, solar and battery energy systems, and even labor to install them are covered in the IRA. NWES can help you start this transformation and build a relationship with how we use, generate, and store electricity.
Benefits of Electrification
Increased comfort and safety
Using electric appliances like heat pumps is more effective at warming and cooling homes, so you pay less for the energy required to keep your home at comfortable temperatures. Switching to an induction stove from a gas stove will prevent asthma and pollution in the house, which can be detrimental to young kids and a dangerous fire hazard. Pushing more solar and wind energy onto the grid will reduce air and water pollution related to burning fossil fuels, so the effects are shared on a grander scale beyond the home.
Energy resiliency and independence
By transitioning to electric appliances and renewably sourced electricity, homes and communities can avoid price hikes from fossil fuel supply interruptions and be more efficient with the energy required to power their homes. Electrification creates a more financial and environmentally stable climate that isn’t susceptible to geo-political events and focuses on nationally produced energy and infrastructure.
Combating climate change
As the electrification movement grows, fossil-fuel-derived energy use will shrink. 11% of the US energy consumption comes from finding, mining, refining, and transporting fossil fuels. After that, you still have to burn it to heat water to create steam, turn a turbine and create electricity which is severely inefficient and costly to American taxpayers as the government subsidizes fossil fuels.
Electrification for all
This series will focus on the efforts that homeowners and the residential sector can make to electrify our Washington. Most of this content will apply to all states in the US and other residential districts worldwide, save for incentives and the organizations I will share.
What we'll cover in this blog series
In this 6-part blog series, we will cover the following aspects of the electrification transformation:
Usage
Generation
Storage
Legislation
Workforce
Next in the Electrify Washington series
Next week we’ll talk about the usage aspect of the electrification movement. Naturally, as we switch our appliances and vehicles to run on electricity, we’ll have to be more careful how we use our electricity! Get excited to learn about the massive improvements that electric appliances have over gas-powered appliances, how we can maximize our available electricity, and what you stand to benefit from electrification!
