How much solar power is actually being generated and pushed onto our electric grid? How reliable and steady is it? PJM Interconnection, the portion of the grid where our electricity comes from, has a helpful tool to look at the power generated by fuel type and over time. These graphs make it pretty clear, solar has a problem, unless you don’t care about the night time.
Natural gas, nuclear and coal are the reason we can keep the lights on. Solar and wind, not so much, but speaking of wind, the other big player in the “renewable portfolio” as the politicians and activists like to call it, it has a little problem of its own, it’s intermittent, unreliable, it varies all over the place.
If you notice the last part of that graph, you’ll see wind is way below the predicted levels, so if you have little sunshine and no wind to back it up, what do you do? Simple, you turn to gas, nuclear and coal that run 24 hours a day, every day. It’s obvious to everyone except green energy developers who really love government money and the politicians who like to throw it around. In their eyes, you and I don’t count.
You can dig into the charts, graphs and numbers on your own at the links below.
PJM Interconnection territory served
PJM Markets and Operations – graphics and various info
The question to ask your utility supplier that wants to receive the intermittent renewables: What is the MBR (Minimum Backup Requirement) and who provides it? What is the cost of the MBR and who pays for it? If they list another utility company you know they are blowing smoke…..because the other utility is scrambling for government mandated renewable KW also.