Solar ‘Protects’ U.S. Power Grid (maybe)

From a Bloomberg report:

The U.S. power grid is vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and the growing use of rooftop solar panels will provide protection against lengthy blackouts, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said.

“It wouldn’t take that much to take the bulk of the power system down,” FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said today at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance summit in New York. “If you took down the transformers and the substations so they’re out permanently, we could be out for a long, long time.”

Note that the role Solar plays is minor, at least for now, as Wellinghoff is talking about solar attached to the roofs of homes and businesses (there’s some of that, but not much).

The real news in the item is how gloomy the FERC chief is on the grid’s vulnerability.

Source: http://electricalcontractor.com/?p=9935

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