Renewable energy vs. the electric grid - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 159

court had largely upheld Order 1000's cost allocation requirements. 51
However, a claim challenging the Order in a different federal court was
casting doubts about the ultimate fate of this latest attempt by FERC to
ease cost allocation negotiations for large scale transmission projects. 52
It remains to be seen whether the Order will ultimately prove successful
at reducing controversies in the United States over the funding of new
interstate transmission lines.
On a more optimistic note, increasing amounts of private investment
in the energy sector offer some hope that disputes over the funding of
high-voltage transmission infrastructure could decrease in years to come.
If these sorts of private capital investments grow to become a more
prominent funding source, they could alleviate at least some of the present
struggles over transmission funding. For example, the Internet behemoth
Google has invested heavily in the $5 billion Atlantic Wind Connection
project—a planned high-voltage “backbone” line aimed at facilitating up
to 6 GW of offshore wind energy development along the eastern seaboard
of the United States. 53 Google executives have suggested that the company
intends to invest in more “transformative” transmission projects in the
future. 54 If this trend were to continue and similar companies were to join
it, many of the cost allocation challenges described above would become
less relevant over time, facilitating a faster pace of renewable energy
development.
Conflicts over renewable energy's impacts on grid operations
A second category of grid-related conflicts that can hinder renewable
energy development relates not to the transmission of electricity across
long distances but to its distribution via lower-voltage lines to end-users.
Like the transmission-related conflicts just described, many distribution-
related disputes arise because existing grid facilities and operations in many
regions were not originally designed to manage the unique characteristics
of renewable power. In particular, existing grids are seldom equipped
to effectively handle the intermittent nature of many renewable energy
resources.
The availability of wind and solar energy resources not only varies by
location—it also varies by time. The wind does not always blow, and the
sun does not always shine. For the most part, only Mother Nature can
control fluctuations in the quality of wind and solar resources at a given
location. These fluctuations can be unpredictable and can sometimes occur
in a dramatic fashion and on relatively short notice.
The intermittency and variability of wind and solar energy resources can
complicate efforts to incorporate more of these resources into a utility's
energy mix. Stable, malleable power sources have long been instrumental in
enabling utilities to provide reliable electricity service to consumers without
blackouts or other interruptions. As one writer describes it: