Rabble-Rousing

Grid Reliability: What the Koch Brothers Say

     I recently read an article about the German power grid and the assertion that renewable energy, in the form of solar and wind, were destabilizing said grid. Since we live in Southern Germany now, I was more then a little concerned. You have seen the pictures I have shared of our town here, with about every other house topped with solar arrays. I can see wind turbines on the ridge a few miles away (kilometers, mean). Did I move from one country with power grid issues only to take up residence in another with worse issues?

http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/germanys-green-energy-destabilizing-electric-grids/

     The article above describes the growing use of renewables as a detriment to the German grid, due to the wild fluctuations created from utilizing solar and wind to generate electricity. In asserts that when the wind stops blowing and the sun goes down, the lack of electrical production can lead to "potential blackouts, weakening voltage and causing damage to industrial equipment." This, so the piece goes on to say, is causing issues with neighboring Poland and The Czech Republic, who are upset that the wind farms in Eastern Germany are overloading their power grids, when during the day the wind farms are producing 3-4 times more energy then is needed or can be stored.

                        (Taken from the window of my apartment in Wald, Germany. Not the best quality, but I can see this from the house.)

     My issues with this article are pretty straight forward. My wife's family lives here in Germany. They are spread out from the Allgäu in Southern Germany, (where we live) north to Frankfurt (about 4.5 hours away). I have friends in Heidelberg, Berlin and Munich, and my wife knows people in Hamburg, Dresden and tons of other places that I can't spell or pronounce. I have asked a lot of those people (in an unscientific survey) how many times they have lost power, or experienced brown outs or heard about issues with the power grid in their area. And every one of them had the same reaction. "Huh? What are you talking about?" No one we know has experienced it, nor have we, despite the weekly thunderstorms that hammer us here near the mountains. My brother in law lives outside of Stuttgart, and he scoffed at the idea of losing power during a thunderstorm. "Does that happen in America?" he asked me.

     So, I did a little digging into the Institute for Energy Research. It is a nonprofit that does research into global energy markets. It was founded in 1989. And it is funded, almost exclusively, by the petroleum industry. Including Exxon Mobile, the American Petroleum Institute and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation...which is run by the Koch brothers. Yes, those Koch brothers. You'll have to excuse me when I call bullshit on an article slamming renewables when its released by a website propped up with oil money.

                  courtesy Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/the-koch-s--secret-bank--takes-another-step-out-of-the-shadows-031543616.html
   
Let's go over the bullshit in their article, shall we?

1. The US power grids experiences far more brown outs, power fluctuations and blackouts then the German one. My lights flickered every time there was a thunderstorm in Maryland. Sometimes we lost power when the wind blew. That happens far less here in Germany. 
2. Grid weakening happens with every grid, everywhere. Equipment gets damaged. It cost approximately $12,300 to repair equipment for an incident in Hamburg, when the energy company was "forced" to buy a backup battery system to prevent further damage to its equipment due to a few episodes of a weakening grid over a three week period. The backup system cost $185,000. Due to changing energy production, power companies are adjusting. Thats how innovation works, if you are keeping score. 
3. Over production of energy is the American Way! Our power plants have over produced energy for decades! We waste energy like french fires that fall under the front seat of your car (you know you have them under there). Suddenly, in Germany its destabilizing their power grid? I don't think so. 
4. There is a hyperlink in the article in the section about how upset Poland and the Czech Republic are over this travesty. Except it sent me to a page with the 404 Error message. I have not been able to find any article that discusses this. It makes me think that the link is there to give the appearance that an article really exists, and many won't click on it, taking it at face value. But i may be jumping to conclusions. Bt considering the source, and the people who buy into this crap...

     Here is a link to an article that came out this week that analyzed the reliability of power grids world wide.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/12/3470070/germany-reliable-grid-renewables/

                      (courtesy of Climate Progress http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/12/3470070/germany-reliable-grid-renewables/ )

   
     Germany is number one. The USA is second to last. I'm not bashing my country or being un-American, but the US has some catching up to do.  Which raises the question,"Why hasn't the Institute for Energy Research written a similar article addressing the issues of the US power grid?" I mean, we all know its unreliable at times. Who here hasn't lost power before?

      I searched their site. There are no articles about the US grid, except to say we need more Oil and Coal generated power. But there are plenty of other articles bashing renewables, with suspect titles like:

•  Electricity Demand Stagnates Despite Growth in Households, 

followed by:

•  The UK and US Northeast Face Energy Shortage. 

Or:

•  AWEA's Bold Push for More Wind Welfare (which scoffs at subsidies of wind power companies) 

and,

•  Lunacy from the Journal of Power Sources: Just Build More Renewables (which dismisses the study that the power grid in the US can be run almost entirely with solar and wind by 2030). 

     Does that sound unbiased and reliable to you? This is the kind of junk that is out there, misleading people who accept it without questioning who it came from. This is preventing us from being a leader in renewable energy.  We won't be able to do that until we stop listening to the inaccurate bullshit the Koch brothers and the rest of the Fossil Fuel industry keep putting out there.

     My goal on this blog is to ensure you folks know where your info is coming from, to be able to look into sources to determine if they are biased or unreliable. Sure, you can point out that I shared the article about grid reliability from Climate Progress, and you could make the case that they are biased against oil and coal. But, I have found them to be reliable and accurate when it come to news on renewable energy, as well as findings about Climate Change. But, don't take my word for it. Go find out for yourself.

   

"Collecting facts is important. Knowledge is 

important. But if you don't have an 

imagination to use the knowledge, civilization is 

nowhere."

- Ray Bradbury