From giant earth towers to compressed-air plants, entrepreneurs are piloting systems to make renewable energy more reliable. Novelist Kim Stanley Robinson is a leading writer in the emerging genre of climate fiction, or “cli-fi”—and more optimistic than many. In the face of global crisis, he insists, “the utopian course of history is not completely unlikely.” Power companies are turning to AI, drones and sensors to curtail outages, save money and help operate an increasingly complex electricity grid. Consumers Energy, a utility that serves 6.7 million residents of Michigan, wanted to get greener, faster. It shed its reliance on building traditional power plants and focused on helping customers reduce their electricity consumption—a counterintuitive move for a company that earns much of its revenue by selling electrons. Living solar power cells, household microgrids and more projects in the works for the decentralized grid of the future. Carbon-capture techniques have remained costly […]