Hardening the Grid: A National Security Imperative.

Solar Power & Microgrids Could be the Answer to Protecting U.S. Military from Threats to the Electric Grid

As we have shared in previous posts, the U.S. electrical grid is outdated and could easily be crippled by natural disasters or an attack, either cyber or physical.

A recent 500-page comprehensive study from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) confirms this issue and “begged for new authority to defend against weaknesses in the grid,” according to a recent story in Defense One. The DoE went on to warn “…it’s only a matter of time before the grid fails, due to disaster or attack.”

The technical community recommends hardening the grid to make it more resilient to attack by using distributed generation and microgrids. “Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are an ideal distributed generation technology to provide power for such microgrids.” (Learn how microgrids work in our Microgrids can Help Create More Reliable, Safer Energy Sources for Large Facilities post here.)

Unfortunately, the speed of policy and implementation is not getting the attention it should, when one realizes the level of threat our outdated grid is to our national security.

Read the DoE Quadrennial Energy Review, Second Installment here.