Distributed generation (DG), such as community and rooftop solar, only adds capacity to our electrical grid and acts as an additional resource during surges and outages. According to the EPA, it also eliminates “line loss” during energy transmission and distribution by traveling shorter distances. DG matched with ample battery storage makes sure our lights stay on despite uncontrollable circumstances.
Fossil fuel resources may have a reputation for being more reliable than variable sources like solar and wind, but the record is full of many instances of reliability problems with baseload generation, as seen in the problems that occurred in Texas in the winter of 2021. Data from Europe indicates that countries with strong penetration of renewable energy also experience great reliability for their systems with heavy reliance on renewables. For example, Germany gets nearly half of its electricity from renewables. It also has one of the most reliable grids in Europe–based on a standard outage index –with an average system outage duration .25 hours, compared to the U.S. outage rate of 1.28 hours. (Yale Environment360) Excerpt from Tim Maloney’s Testimony to 21st Century Energy Policy Development Task Force