Grid DA

1NC-Grid DA
A) The grid is on the brink of collapse
Pentland 13 (William Pentland, Senior Energy Systems Analyst at Pace University Energy & Climate Center, Resiliency Portfolio Standards: Turning Smart Grids into Strong Grids, Feb 1, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/02/01/resiliency-portfolio-standards-turningsmart-grids-into-strong-grids/)
When prairies burn, they do not die. The same cannot be said for the electric power grid. On the contrary, the

electric grid has

become a cautionary tale for the risks of systemic collapse. The number of U.S. power outages affecting 50,000 or more
consumers increased from 149 between 2000 and 2004 to 349 between 2005 and 2009, according to the smart-grid visionary Massoud Amin, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. Problems on the power grid cost U.S. consumers an estimated $150 billion annually. James Woolsey, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and venture capitalist at Lux Capital, has described the U.S. electric power grid as the security equivalent of a house left with the door unlocked, the windows open, and millions of dollars of jewelry and home entertainment equipment strewn about for the taking. And when the electrical grid fails, Woolsey adds, it is not only the lights that go out. Power blackouts are like powder-kegged dominos. When the grid goes down, it takes critical communications and transportation systems down with it. Ditto 911 and state emergency communication centers, first responder stations, hospitals, control centers, traffic signals and critical infrastructure like water pumping and filtration systems. In Assessing the Role of Distributed Power Systems in the U.S. Power Sector, the Brookings Institutions Energy Security Initiative concluded that distributed power systems has the potential to make a significant positive contribution to the U.S. power system, which is facing an unprecedented range of economic, environmental, and security related challenges.

In a recently de-classified study advising the U.S. Navy to abandon plans for privatizing the military utility systems, the U.S. Naval Office of Inspector General explained the gravity of these challenges: Evaluation of the vulnerabilities of our national electric utility networks reveals weaknesses that, if exploited, could result in a long-term, multistate blackout. While power might be restored in parts of the regions within a matter of days or weeks, acute shortages could mandate rolling blackouts for as long as several years. An indication of these vulnerabilities was demonstrated during the
power outage that struck the northeast region of the United States in August 2003.

B) Links 1. Energy production increases demand for electricity

David

Weinberger, September 2011 (Does Supply Create Demand? http://blog.heritage.org/2011/09/20/does-supply-create-demand/) FEB

Which comes first: supply or demand? This question has serious policy implications, especially as President Barack Obama proposes $447 billion in additional stimulus spending in order to try to spur job growth in America. Demand-siders, also known as Keynesians (after influential economist John Maynard Keynes), insist that short-run economic fluctuations are caused by shocks to the economy that leave aggregate demandthe total amount of money spent on goods and services in the economybelow full capacity. In their view, since less money is spent on goods and services, businesses must lay people off, which further reduces spending, resulting in more layoffs, causing even less spending, and so the cycle goes. The policy argument is that government must step in and spendat a deficitin order to prop up total demand. Another theory, however, first put forth by Jean Baptiste Say, an economist in the 19th century, articulates that supply

creates demand. It

became broadly known as Says Law, and has policy implications for supply-siders. Says Law stipulates that, since supply creates its own demand, overproductionthe creation of goods and services without an equal flow of demand for those goods and servicesis impossible. This renders Keynesian policy useless at best and destructive at worst (since it interferes with normal free-market processes). So which theory is correct? In normal, meaning non-recessionary, times, with full employment and reasonably flexible wages, Says Law holds. To paraphrase Henry Hazlitt, supply creates its own demand, because at its most fundamental, supply is demand: The supply of th e thing they make is all that people have, in fact, to offer in exchange for the things they want. In that sense, the supply of a farmers crops constitutes his ability to demand an automakers automobile. In bad times, however, excess supply is indeed possible. Thats why during recessions many businesses have unsold inventory: Supply and demand are out of equilibrium. So does this mean that Keynesians are correctthat, in bad times, government can prop up demand by deficit spending? Not quite. While the understanding of Says Law described thus far is imperfect, a broader understanding of it vindicates supply-siders and denies demand-siders. This slightly more sophisticated understanding of the law states that production creates demand. Say wrote:

It is production which opens a demand for productsThus the

mere circumstance of the creation of one product immediately opens a vent for other products. In other words, the demand one has for goods and services comes from the income he or she produces. So what does this mean in terms of policy implications? It means that production ultimately drives both supply and demand.
Recessions and booms therefore begin on the supply side, with shocks to productivity and labor supply. The key to stimulating an economy out of recession is to stimulate production, not aggregate demand. The way to encourage more production is to increase incentives for additional labor and investment. Taxes on income, corporate earnings, dividends and capital gains, among others, penalize production and are disincentives to additional work effort. Reducing those disincentives encourages people to take on additional work, resulting in more production in the economy, elevating both total supply and demand in tandem. Among politicians and academics, Keynesian philosophy is ubiquitously accepted. However, its repeated failures over the last few years have left Americans seeking an alternative explanation for what their common sense already tells them: No economy can spend its way to prosperity, whether its $447 billion or $845 billion.

2. <Insert Specific Link> C) Even small disturbances spillover Glauthier 03

(T. J. Glauthier, President & CEO of the Electricity Innovation Institute, September 21, 2003, "Lighting Up the Blackout: Technology Upgrades to Americas Electrical System" Lexis Nexis)
I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to address this distinguished Committee on a subject about which we are all concerned. The electric power system represents the fundamental national infrastructure, upon which all other infrastructures depend for their daily operations. As we learned from the recent Northeast blackout, without electricity, municipal water pumps don't work, vehicular traffic grinds to a halt at intersections, subway trains stop between stations, and elevators stop between floors. The August 14th blackout

also illustrated how vulnerable a regional power network can be to cascading outages caused by initially small--and still not fully understood--local problems. In response to the Committee's request, my testimony today provides some of EPRI's and E2I's
views on technology issues that require further attention to improve the effectiveness and reliability of the nation's interconnected power systems. This testimony will be supplemented with a matrix table as requested by the Committee. Context for power reliability Power system reliability is the product of many activities--planning, maintenance, operations, regulatory and reliability standards--all of which must be considered as the nation makes the transition over the longer term to a more efficient and effective power delivery system. While there are specific technologies that can be more widely applied to improve reliability both in the near- and intermediate-term, the inescapable reality is that there must be more than simply sufficient capacity in both generation and transmission in order for the system to operate reliably. The emergence of a competitive market in wholesale power transactions over the past decade has consumed much of the operating margin in transmission capacity that traditionally existed and helped to avert outages. Moreover, a lack

of incentives for continuing investment in both new generating capacity and power delivery infrastructure has left the overall system much more vulnerable to the weakening effects of what would normally be low-level, isolated events and disturbances.

D) This leads to extinction

IBT 11
(International Business Times Solar Flare Could Unleash Nuclear Holocaust Across Planet Earth, Forcing Hundreds of Nuclear Power Plants Into Total Meltdowns, September 14, 2011, http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/213249/20110914/solar-flare-could-unleash-nuclear-holocaust-acrossplanet-earth-forcing-hundreds-of-nuclear-power-pl.htm)
Most people don't realize it, but petroleum refineries run on electricity. Without

the power grid, the refineries don't produce a drop of diesel. With no diesel, there are no generators keeping the coolant running in the nuclear power facilities.
But wait, you say: Maybe we could just acquire diesel from all the gas stations in the world. Pump it out of the ground, load it into trucks and use that to power the generators, right? Except there are other problems here: How do you pump all that fuel without electricity? How do you acquire all the tires and spare parts needed to keep trucks running if there's no electricity to keep the supply businesses running? How do you maintain a truck delivery infrastructure when the electrical infrastructure is totally wiped out? Some countries might be able to pull it off with some degree of success. With military escorts and the total government control over all fuel supplies, a few nations will be able to keep a few nuclear power facilities from melting down. But here's the real issue: There are 700 nuclear power facilities in the world, remember? Let's suppose that in the aftermath of a massive solar flare, the nations of the world are somehow able to control half of those facilities and nurse them into cold shutdown status. That still leaves roughly 350 nuclear facilities at risk. Now let's suppose half of those are somehow luckily offline and not even functioning when the solar flare hits, so they need no special attention. This is a very optimistic

assumption, but that still leaves 175 nuclear power plants where all attempts fail. Let's be outrageously optimistic and suppose that a third of those somehow don't go into a total meltdown by some miracle of God, or some bizarre twist in the laws of physics. So we're still left with 115 nuclear power plants that "go Chernobyl." Fukushima was one power plant. Imagine the devastation of 100+ nuclear power plants, all going into meltdown all at once across the planet. It's

not the loss of electricity that's the real problem; it's the global tidal wave of invisible radiation that blankets the planet, permeates the topsoil, irradiates everything that breathes and delivers the final crushing blow to human civilization as we know it today

Uniqueness
The grid is on the brink of collapse- an increase in demand will further strain the grid
Halsey 12 (Ashley Halsey III, Aging power grid on overload as U.S. demands more electricity, August 1, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/aging-power-grid-on-overload-as-usdemands-more-electricity/2012/08/01/gJQAB5LDQX_story.html?hpid=z3)
The term grid suggests a certain uniformity to the power systems structure, but the network more closely resembles a patchwork quilt

The United States doesnt yet face the critical shortage of power that has left more than 600million people in India without electricity this week But the U.S. grid is aging and stretched to capacity. More often the victim of decrepitude than the forces of nature, it is beginning to falter. Experts fear failures that caused blackouts in New York, Boston and San Diego may become more common as the voracious demand for power continues to grow. They say it will take a multibillion-dollar investment to avoid them.
stitched together to cover a rapidly expanding nation.

The Grid is on the Brink of Collapse

Alic Dec 23, 2012
(Jen Alic is a geopolitical analyst, co-founder of ISA Intel, US Power Grid Vulnerable to Just About Everything, http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1212/S00019/us-power-grid-vulnerable-to-just-abouteverything.htm)
One key problem is theoretically a simple one to resolve: a lack of spare parts. According

to the National Academy of Sciences, the grid is particularly vulnerable because it is spread out across hundreds of miles with key equipment not sufficiently guarded or antiquated and unable to prevent outages from cascading. We are talking about
some 170,000 miles of voltage transmission line miles fed by 2,100 high-voltage transformers delivering power to 125 million households. "We

could easily be without power across a multistate region for many weeks or months, because we don't have many spare transformers," according to the Academy. High-voltage transformers are vulnerable both from within and
from outside the substations in which they are housed. Complicating matters, these transformers are huge and difficult to remove. They are also difficult to replace, as they are custom built primarily outside the US. So what is the solution? Perhaps, says the Academy, to design smaller portable transformers that could be used temporarily in an emergency situation. Why was the Academy's 2007 report only just declassified? Well, its authors were worried that it would be tantamount to providing terrorists with a detailed recipe for attacking and destabilizing America, or perhaps for starting a revolution. The military at least is preparing to protect its own power supplies. Recently, the US Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $7 million contract for research that demonstrates the integration of electric vehicles, generators and solar arrays to supply emergency power for Fort Carson, Colorado. This is the SPIDERS (Smart Power Infrastructure Demonstration for Energy Reliability and Security), and the Army hopes it will be the answer to more efficient and secure energy. Back in the civilian world, however, things are moving rather slowly, and the focus remains on the sexier idea of an energy-crippling cyberattack. Last week, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) urged House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) to pass a billthe GRID Act--which would secure the grid against cyberattacks. "As the widespread and, in some cases, still ongoing power outages from Superstorm Sandy have shown us, our

electric grid is too fragile and its disruption is too devastating for us to fail to act," Markey wrote. "Given this urgency, it is critical
that the House act immediately in a bipartisan manner to ensure our electrical infrastructure is secure." This bill was passed by the House, but has failed to gain any traction in the Senate. FERC, of course, is all for the bill, which would give it the authority to issue orders and regulations to boost the security of the electric grid's computer systems from a cyberattack. But it's only a small piece of the security puzzle, and FERC remains concerned that authorities are overlooking the myriad simpler threats to the electricity grid. These don't make for the easy headlines, especially since they are not necessarily foreign in nature.

Links

Nuclear
New Nuclear plants would destabilize the grid
Kirby et al 7 (Kirby, Brendan, et al. "Nuclear generating stations and transmission grid reliability." Power Symposium, 2007. NAPS'07. 39th North American. IEEE, 2007. http://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/files/Pub6895.pdf) For transmission grid operators, the limited ability of nuclear power plants to supply reactive reserve for the support of grid voltage and to stay connected to the grid during voltage excursions is a problem. In this paper, we discuss a selection of nuclear plant trips that were caused by transmission system voltage excursions. Plant trips
are also a concern from the nuclear safety perspective because trips due to voltage excursions are a major contributor to the risk of core melt. In addition, nuclear plants typically do not help to regulate transmission system frequency with automatic governor control. As more and more new generation does not provide frequency regulation, the bulk power systems response to frequency has declined, which has a serious impact on bulk system reliability. Twenty-eight new nuclear plants are now being considered for license application according the to the NRC. Some of these may be completed as early as 2014, while it can easily take ten years or more to design, permit, and build new transmission lines. Presently, operating margins are being eroded on the transmission system because of the connection of new generation, higher flows, and the delay in building new transmission. The conventional generators do.

connection of these new nuclear plants to the grid will present a significant problem to grid reliability unless design improvements are made to enable them to regulate voltage and frequency as

Wind
Wind energy destabilizes the grid- will cause rolling blackouts this year
Smith 13 (Rebecca Smith, Wall Street Journal reporter, California Girds for Electricity Woes, February 26, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323699704578328581251122150.html?mod=googlen ews_wsj) Grid officials say they expect the surplus to fall to 20% by 2022, though it will remain high for about a decade. However, the surplus generating capacity doesn't guarantee steady power flow. Even though California has a lot of plants, it doesn't have the right mix: Many of the solar and wind sources added in recent years have actually made the system more fragile, because they provide power intermittently. Electricity systems need some surplus, so they can cover unexpected generator outages
or transmission-line failures, but having too much can depress the prices generators can charge for electricity. In part because of low power prices, many gas-fired generation units aren't profitable enough to justify refurbishments required by pending federal regulations under the Clean Water Act. That means they are likely to be shut by 2020, adding to the state's power woes. By July, state officials hope to have a plan in place addressing the problem. Turf issues among state and federal regulators could complicate the process. Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities, said action is clearly needed, but he isn't sure whether the market needs "small adjustments or a major overhaul." Utility

executives are calling for immediate action, pointing to the risk of rolling blackouts. "We see the issue hitting as soon as 2013, 2014, 2015," said Todd Strauss, the head of planning and analysis for PG&E Corp., a big utility serving Northern California, who attended Tuesday's meeting. "If we thought it was far out, we wouldn't be here."

Wind production would increase demand further destabilizing the grid

Salkever 10
(Alex Salkever, a freelance writer and former tech editor for Businessweek Too Green, Too Soon? Renewable Power May Destabilize Electrical Grid, http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/06/toogreen-too-soon-renewable-power-may-destablize-electrical-g/) many utility companies are so concerned about grid instability that they're saying they can't accept any more electricity from intermittent sources of power. Translation: Solar power only runs in the day time and can't re relied on for so called "baseload" capacity. Wind power primarily produces current at night and,
Only five years into the world's renewable energy push, likewise, can't be relied upon for baseload capacity. Geothermal, meanwhile, is perfect for providing baseload. But geothermal projects take an excruciatingly long time to build out. And then there have been the recent spate of earthquake scares around geothermal sites. The upshot:

Utilities such as Hawaiian Electric in President Obama's home state are voicing concerns about plans to integrate more solar and wind power into the grid until they develop methods to more effectively absorb intermittent sources of power without destabilizing the whole shebang. In Europe, Czech utility companies are concerned that
"feed-in tariffs," which require power companies to repurchase all home- and business-generated renewable power at elevated rates, might wreak havoc on the Central European grid. This growing push-back from utilities could prove to be shock to energy project developers, lawmakers and homeowners. In

the U.S., project developers and state lawmakers have assumed that the ambitious laws the next few decades would ensure huge demand for green power as utilities scaled up their use of such resources from low single-digit levels. Likewise, homeowners have tended to assume that if they could put a panel on their roof (or a windmill on their property), they
mandating as much as 40% of some states' power come from renewable sources within would be guaranteed a market for the extra power produced.

Solar
Solar energy destabilizes the grid- will cause rolling blackouts this year
Smith 13 (Rebecca Smith, Wall Street Journal reporter, California Girds for Electricity Woes, February 26, 2013, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323699704578328581251122150.html?mod=googlen ews_wsj) Grid officials say they expect the surplus to fall to 20% by 2022, though it will remain high for about a decade. However, the surplus generating capacity doesn't guarantee steady power flow. Even though California has a lot of plants, it doesn't have the right mix: Many of the solar and wind sources added in recent years have actually made the system more fragile, because they provide power intermittently. Electricity systems need some surplus, so they can cover unexpected generator outages
or transmission-line failures, but having too much can depress the prices generators can charge for electricity. In part because of low power prices, many gas-fired generation units aren't profitable enough to justify refurbishments required by pending federal regulations under the Clean Water Act. That means they are likely to be shut by 2020, adding to the state's power woes. By July, state officials hope to have a plan in place addressing the problem. Turf issues among state and federal regulators could complicate the process. Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities, said action is clearly needed, but he isn't sure whether the market needs "small adjustments or a major overhaul." Utility

executives are calling for immediate action, pointing to the risk of rolling blackouts. "We see the issue hitting as soon as 2013, 2014, 2015," said Todd Strauss, the head of planning and analysis for PG&E Corp., a big utility serving Northern California, who attended Tuesday's meeting. "If we thought it was far out, we wouldn't be here."

Solar production would increase demand further destabilizing the grid

Salkever 10
(Alex Salkever, a freelance writer and former tech editor for Businessweek Too Green, Too Soon? Renewable Power May Destabilize Electrical Grid, http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/04/06/toogreen-too-soon-renewable-power-may-destablize-electrical-g/) many utility companies are so concerned about grid instability that they're saying they can't accept any more electricity from intermittent sources of power. Translation: Solar power only runs in the day time and can't re relied on for so called "baseload" capacity. Wind power primarily produces current at night and,
Only five years into the world's renewable energy push, likewise, can't be relied upon for baseload capacity. Geothermal, meanwhile, is perfect for providing baseload. But geothermal projects take an excruciatingly long time to build out. And then there have been the recent spate of earthquake scares around geothermal sites. The upshot:

Utilities such as Hawaiian Electric in President Obama's home state are voicing concerns about plans to integrate more solar and wind power into the grid until they develop methods to more effectively absorb intermittent sources of power without destabilizing the whole shebang. In Europe, Czech utility companies are concerned that
"feed-in tariffs," which require power companies to repurchase all home- and business-generated renewable power at elevated rates, might wreak havoc on the Central European grid. This growing push-back from utilities could prove to be shock to energy project developers, lawmakers and homeowners. In

the U.S., project developers and state lawmakers have assumed that the ambitious laws the next few decades would ensure huge demand for green power as utilities scaled up their use of such resources from low single-digit levels. Likewise, homeowners have tended to assume that if they could put a panel on their roof (or a windmill on their property), they
mandating as much as 40% of some states' power come from renewable sources within would be guaranteed a market for the extra power produced.

Impacts

Econ->Nuclear War
Grid collapse will devastate the economy Bryan 03 (Jay Bryan, August 19, 2003, The Gazette, Power grids vital in information age, Lexis Nexis)
This worsened the already-anemic state of a U.S. economy that had been hammered by a massive stock-market meltdown and a series of confidence- sapping corporate scandals. It hurt Canada, too, weakening our biggest market. So now, just when there are signs of healthy growth in both countries, is the last time you'd want to see a large part of the continent's electric-power

network collapse. We can

be grateful that the immediate impacts look modest. David Rosenberg, chief North American economist with Merrill Lynch, estimates that the

U.S. impact could amount to as much as $30 billion for each day of interrupted activity. That's roughly one percentage point of quarterly economic growth, which means that just a few days could theoretically take economic growth in the third quarter right down to zero. But this is just the first step in his analysis.
In reality, most activity was returning to something close to normal by yesterday. More important, Rosenberg says, any losses in August are likely to be recouped in September, much as economic activity rebounds to wipe out most losses after a severe winter storm. But even if we do look back on the great blackout of '03 as a mere hiccup for the economy, there will be little reason for complacency. As Royal Bank economist John Anania notes, the

reliability of the power grid is absolutely indispensable in an information-age

economy.

Economic collapse leads to nuclear war

Bearden 2K (Lt. Col in US Army) *Thomas, The Unnecessary Energy Crisis, Free Republic, June 24, p. online wyo-tjc] History bears out that desperate nations take desperate actions. Prior to the final economic collapse, the stress on nations will have increased the intensity and number of their conflicts, to the point where the arsenals of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) now possessed by some 25 nations, are almost certain to be released. As an example, suppose a starving North Korea launches nuclear weapons upon Japan and South
Korea, including U.S. forces there, in a spasmodic suicidal response. Or suppose a desperate China-whose long-range nuclear missiles (some) can reach the United States-attacks Taiwan. In addition to immediate responses, the

mutual treaties involved in such scenarios will quickly draw other nations into the conflict, escalating it significantly. Strategic nuclear studies have shown for decades that, under such extreme stress conditions, once a few nukes are launched, adversaries and potential adversaries are then compelled to launch on perception of preparations by one's adversary. The real legacy of the MAD concept is this side of the MAD coin that is almost never discussed.
Without effective defense, the only chance a nation has to survive at all is to launch immediate full-bore pre-emptive strikes and try to take out its perceived foes as rapidly and massively as possible. As the studies showed, rapid escalation to full WMD exchange occurs. Today, a great

The resulting great Armageddon will destroy civilization as we know it, and perhaps most of the biosphere, at least for many decades.
percent of the WMD arsenals that will be unleashed, are already on site within the United States itself.

2NC: Answers To their stuff

A2 Smart Grid
1) Smart grid would take twenty years to build- We win on timeframe
Plumer 13 (Brad Plumer, reporter at the Washington Post writing about domestic policy, particularly energy and environmental issues, Could a smart grid have prevented the Super Bowl blackout? , Feb 4, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/04/could-a-smart-grid-have-preventedthe-super-bowl-blackout/) A recent study from the Electric Power Research Institute estimated that it could cost up to $476 billion over the next 20 years to establish a nationwide smart grid.

2) Smart Grid doesnt solve- still vulnerable

National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy 12 (National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy, Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid, November 2012, http://gettingsmarteraboutthesmartgrid.org/pdf/SmartGrid_Report_PDF-2012-11-26Final.pdf) former CIA Director, James Woolseys well-known decentralization approach to grid stated There is no one in charge of security for the gridA so-called smart grid that is as vulnerable as what weve got is not smart at all.
The NSTC Report provides no discussion of security and to energy security (Woolsey, 2007). In a recent interview, Woolsey

3) Smart grid doesnt solve- need structural change not just modernizing
National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy 12 (National Institute for Science, Law, and Public Policy, Getting Smarter About the Smart Grid, November 2012, http://gettingsmarteraboutthesmartgrid.org/pdf/SmartGrid_Report_PDF-2012-11-26Final.pdf) Federal smart grid policy at the highest levels seems confused and suffering from a fundamental lack of understanding of the problems associated with the future of electricity and energy. Policy statements reflect the belief that the basic solutions involve fixing or modernizing the existing electricity grid rather than addressing the pressing need for complete structural transformation of electrical service that goes beyond particular smart technologies.

A2 Decentralized Wind
Wind power connects to grid
Wagner and Mathur 13
(Hermann-Josef Wagner, Jyotirmay Mathur, Introduction to Wind Energy Systems: Basics, Technology and Operation, 2nd Edition, 2013, pg 69 Jyotirmay Mathur is a mechanical engineer postgraduate in energy studies from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India; and doctorate from University of Essen, Germany. He specializes in the areas of renewable energy systems, energy policy modelling and energy efficiency. Hermann-Josef Wagner is Professor for Energy Systems and Energy Economics at the Ruhr-University of Bochum, Germany. He worked as a scientist for the Research Centre Juelich, for the German Parliament and for different universities. His relevant experiences are on the fields on energy systems analysis, renewable energies like wind energy and life cycle analysis.) The connection to grid depends upon the purpose for which a wind energy system is used. Although most large wind

energy systems

are installed to feed electricity to the grid, however, other configurations are also found, particularly in small and medium size
turbines. Their requirements for grid connection are described in this section. From the Point of view of utilization of generated electricity,

wind energy systems can be used in three ways as explained below: (a) Grid connected System. The grid connected system has a connection with an electricity transmission and distribution system called gird-connected systems. A
grid-connected win turbine can be used for reducing the consumption of fossil energy carriers.

Increasing wind production will cause more wind turbines to be connected to the grid
Gilbert et al 2k
(Trudy L. Forsyth and Peter K. C. Tu and Jeff Gilbert, National Renewable Energy Laboratory ECONOMICS OF GRID-CONNECTED SMALL WIND TURBINES IN THE DOMESTIC MARKET, June 2000)

Exploitation of certain niche markets for small wind turbines is one strategy that could help speed the commercialization of grid-connected small turbines. We review the worlds turbine manufacturers, the utility grid-connected
applications and selected niche markets for grid-connected small wind systems (0.1 to 100 kilowatts). Wind turbine installation and purchase are handled under three different payment scenarios: paid in full up front, paid through a second mortgage, or paid as part of a first mortgage. We used a simple payback method to compare these scenarios and analyze the costs and energy produced for three different U.S. small wind turbines. When

there is a buy-down program for the small wind turbine combined with other financial factors such as net metering, tax exemptions, and tax credits, a strong market incentive is created for the use of grid-connected small wind turbines.

A2 Decentralized Solar
Solar panels are connected to the grid
(John Tozzi, John Tozzi is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek and covers small business for Businessweek.com, Solar Panels No Savior in a Blackout, October 31, 2012, Business Week, http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-31/solar-panels-no-savior-in-a-blackout)
Some of the roughly 6 million power customers in the Northeast without electricity in Hurricane Sandys wake may be glancing around at a handful of homes with solar panels on their rooftops, thinking their clean-powered neighbors might have juice. Most of the time, thats not the case. Most residential solar

panels are connected to the power grid, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, and when the grid goes down, so do they. They dont stay on even when the sun shines but the power grid is out, says Danny Kennedy, co-founder of Oakland (Calif.)-based Sungevity, which has a few hundred homeowners as customers in states hit by Sandy. Thats a good reminder to all of us that we need to modernize the grid. One reason the grid-connected solar systems shut down automatically in outages is that when the power goes off,
if home solar installations send electricity onto the lines, it could electrocute workers repairing them. In the U.S., its a lso rare for residential solar customers to have batteries in their home to store the power coming off their roofs in case of a broader outage. In countries such as Germany, Kennedy says, more homes have batteries or electric vehicles connected to their panels.