Senate Confirms Trump Energy Pick Who Said Renewable Energy 'Screws Up' Grid

[DonViejo]

By MATTHEW DALY

December 6, 2018 3:13 pm

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s nominee for a federal energy board, despite a video that shows the nominee saying that renewable energy “screws up” the nation’s electrical grid.

The Senate has approved Bernard McNamee’s nomination to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on a 50-49 party-line vote. McNamee now heads the Energy Department’s Office of Policy and worked on a stalled effort to bail out struggling coal and nuclear plants.

In the video, McNamee says fossil fuels and nuclear energy “keep the lights on” and that renewable energy such as wind and solar power “screws up … the physics of the grid” providing the nation’s electricity.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia opposed McNamee after backing him in committee. Manchin says McNamee wasn’t serious enough about climate change.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/senate-confirms-bernard-mcnamee

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. GOP are all traitors. They will burn this place to the ground if we dont stop them.

[Loki Liesmith]

2. That's not entirely wrong

Renewables tend to push power back into the grid in unpredictable fashion...or at least in bursts that are not well correlated with demand. This can interact with existent current flows in negative ways.

This can cause damage to some downstream components in extreme situations.

So it’s a real concern but it’s a problem that’s being worked on. Spent a year of my life trying to deal with it from an analytics perspective.

[TreasonousBastard]

3. I remember that was a problem with home generation and utilities cut some off...

from their local grid. There was also a problem with matching A/C frequency and maybe even harmonics. A few problematic outside sources could be absorbed by the grid, but not a lot of them.

Howsumever, our local utility is now setting up acres of its own solar panels and encouraging rooftop panels. Windmills are common around here, too. Many of the problems seem to have been solved, and any more will no doubt be solved in the future.

[Loki Liesmith]

4. Oh it's nowhere near the problem it was

Not solved but cost benefit analysis comes down on the side of renewables.