A person who said they are a reliability coordinator made false claims about green power grids on Reddit — and got thoroughly debunked.

While based on some facts, the OP didn’t paint a complete picture. Combining solar, wind, and battery power could create a stable power grid, and the OP falsely claimed a green power grid was a pipe dream. 

The OP alleged that solar and wind patterns are too difficult to predict, and that both excess energy and diminished power generation would affect stability. But they did not take batteries into account.

Many homeowners who use solar power utilize batteries for excess energy storage, with much success. If done on a larger scale, reliable green energy is attainable, as commenters suggested.

These commenters didn’t necessarily disagree that a U.S. transition to renewable energy would be difficult, but argued that it wasn’t impossible. They indicated that the OP just needed to shift their thinking.

“I’m sorry, man, but your take is just not accurate,” one commenter replied. “Batteries allow for what is called ‘artificial inertia’ … They can react instantaneously to changing grid conditions to compensate for frequency and voltage changes to balance the grid.”

With cheap solar and wind power to supplement it, multiple places have achieved this milestone. The commenter above cited Western Australia, which has widespread rooftop solar, as one of the latest. And they’re not the only region proving green energy’s efficacy.

Renewable energy in Germany, for example, uses a combination of battery and solar power to transition away from dirty fuels. In 2020, the U.S. had five times more outages than Germany and less renewable energy, according to Yale Environment 360. 

The OP admitted to some flaws in their logic in an edit. “Maybe a … net-zero grid isn’t a technical problem but a financial one.”

One commenter was worried about the spread of such misinformation. “I think the worst of the denialism has yet to come,” they said. 

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