From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

At midday today, solar power was supplying 11.2 GW out of a total demand of 28.27 GW. (This is after adding back solar, which normally appears as a reduction in demand, because it is embedded generation).

Mad Miliband plans to triple the current solar capacity of 16 GW by 2030. So, on a sunny day like today in 2030, we might see solar power running at 33 GW. You can add to that figure solar power from all the rooftops he wants to make compulsory for new homes.

Now call be dim – but demand of 28 GW and solar power of 33 GW might cause a few problems for the grid! On top of that 33 GW, you also have nuclear, which cannot be simply turned on and off, and wind power, much of which is also embedded and out of reach of the NESO to control.

It is one thing paying a couple of large wind farms to switch off. But you cannot do the same with embedded generation, because they come under the control of regional distribution networks.

Few solar farms have battery storage, and in any event, you could not rely on individual solar farms from sending their power to storage rather then the grid.

The idiots in charge of energy policy doubtless think we can export surplus power, but Europe won’t want it either, because their grids will also be overloaded in summer with solar power.

Which brings us back to the Spanish blackouts.

Excess solar power will quickly destabilise the grid, leading to the same doom loop as in Spain. Generators and substations will trip out, nuclear will immediately shut down for safety reasons and grid frequency will drop to dangerous levels. This then leads to a domino effect.

Without any gas power, there will not be enough inertia to give time for system operators to react. Not that that will make any difference, because there is nothing, they could do to save the grid from collapse.