Roof-Top Solar Is Putting Our Electrical Grid at Risk

If elected, Hillary Clinton plans to deploy another half-billion solar panels by the end of her first term.  But, there is a serious problem with solar, as both California and Germany are finding out.  Too much roof-top solar can actually fry the power grid by generating more power than the grid can handle; causing a catastrophic power outage.

As an unreliable, independent, and distributed power source, roof-top solar output can't be controlled by the power companies.  Thus, they must closely monitor the load on the grid to insure that there is just enough supplemental conventional power (nuclear, natural gas, or coal) to avoid brown-outs.  For this reason, the power companies are always running their conventional generators; even if 90%+ of the power is being generated by solar.  The simple fact is that conventional power generators can't be shutdown because it can take up to 8 hours to restart them and bring them back on line on a gradual basis.

However, the real problem is when solar produces more than 100% of the needed power.  This will cause an overload condition that will literally do serious damage to the electrical grid.  In fact, Germany just found that out in May of this year when it was forced to have its citizens "waste" as much power as possible in order to avoid a collapse of the grid.

California is approaching this same problem.  What to do when too much solar is produced.  In their case, the contemplated plan is to sell their excess to other western states who depend more heavily on natural gas and coal for energy.  Sounds logical, but the truth is, that just puts California's excess power problems in the laps of the power companies in the other states who must constantly adjust their output to account for California's excesses.

While some say the real solution to the problem is the "storage of excess electricity", that is easier said than done.  There is no economical way of accomplishing that task.  Therefore, I think California and the other states that are pushing roof-top solar with heavy subsidies, have to rethink the policies and back off this risky push to supposedly save the planet from global warming.

Our politicians, especially on the political left, need to stop listening to the climate change activists and start listening to the power companies and electrical engineers regarding the risks of too much solar.

References:

Germany Forcing People To Waste Traditional Electricity To Prevent Green Energy Meltdown: http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/11/germany-forced-people-to-use-traditional-electricity-to-prevent-green-energy-meltdown/

What Will California Do With Too Much Solar?: https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2016/04/04/what-will-california-do-with-too-much-solar/

Clinton: ‘Deploy Half a Billion More Solar Panels by End of My First Term’: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/clinton-deploy-half-billion-more-solar-panels-end-my-first-term