{"id":335,"date":"2026-05-30T14:38:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T14:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=335"},"modified":"2026-05-30T14:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T14:38:48","slug":"our-power-grid-is-in-better-shape-this-summer-thanks-to-solar-and-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=335","title":{"rendered":"Our Power Grid Is in Better Shape This Summer, Thanks to Solar and Batteries"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story was originally published by\u00a0<\/em>Canary Media\u00a0and is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk\u00a0collaboration.<\/em><\/p>

Read more Washington Protesters Convicted of \u201cConspiracy to Impede\u201d ICE Agents<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s set to<\/span> be an abnormally hot summer this year\u2014but the US grid appears to be in decent shape to handle the heat. The credit goes to a\u00a0boatload of new solar and storage and a\u00a0handful of new gas plants.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the upshot of the new\u00a0\u00a0from the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which oversees the US and Canadian electric systems. \u201cRecord resource additions have strengthened readiness for the summer season,\u201d\u00a0, including\u00a0\u200b\u201ca substantial influx of solar and battery\u201d resources\u2014the\u00a0most prevalent and lowest-cost new sources\u00a0of grid power\u2014as well as\u00a0\u200b\u201csome new natural gas-fired generators.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report contradicts the Trump administration\u2019s claims that aging fossil-fueled plants are needed in order to prevent blackouts. Over the last year, the Department of Energy has forced five coal plants and one oil- and gas-fired power plant to stay online past their planned retirements, citing an energy emergency that grid experts say does not exist. The approach is now being challenged in\u00a0court.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s not the presence of expensive old fossil-fueled power plants that has put the grid in a\u00a0good position heading into the summer\u2014it\u2019s the rapid expansion of solar and energy storage.<\/p>\n

In fact,\u00a0NERC\u2019s latest summer assessment reached its conclusions without including any of the power plants forced to stay open by the Trump administration.\u00a0\u200b\u201cThese plants and units were not incorporated into the anticipated resources of their corresponding assessment areas for Summer\u00a02026,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n

\u201cNERC\u2019s summer reliability assessment confirms what we\u2019ve known all along,\u201d Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program at nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a\u00a0Thursday statement.\u00a0\u200b\u201cDelaying the retirement of outdated coal plants that require millions of dollars in upgrades and maintenance to keep them operational only prevents more reliable sources from being added to the\u00a0grid.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be clear, some regions still face an elevated risk this\u00a0year.<\/p>\n

NERC\u2019s report says New England, the Pacific Northwest, West Texas, and Canada\u2019s Saskatchewan province could face potential electricity shortfalls under\u00a0\u200b\u201cabnormal summer conditions,\u201d like elevated temperatures that push up air-conditioning demand. The Pacific Northwest is also facing drought conditions that hampered the\u00a0hydropower\u00a0it relies on.<\/p>\n

Still, that\u2019s a\u00a0big improvement from the assessment for the summer of\u00a02025, when\u00a0\u00a0elevated risk during abnormally hot and dry summer conditions in six US regions, including a\u00a0wide swath of the middle of the country from Texas to the Canadian border.<\/p>\n

Those areas no longer at risk include the\u00a015\u00a0US states from Louisiana to North Dakota and the Canadian province of Manitoba, whose grid is managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which provides power to about\u00a045\u00a0million people. Notably,\u00a0MISO\u00a0is host to several of the coal-fired power plants in\u00a0Michigan\u00a0and\u00a0Indiana\u00a0that the\u00a0DOE\u00a0has forced to stay online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While\u00a0NERC\u00a0did track about\u00a07\u00a0gigawatts of new fossil gas generation added since last summer, that was eclipsed by the\u00a030.5\u00a0gigawatts of solar generation capacity added in the same period, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Solar doesn\u2019t provide its full\u00a0nameplate generation capacity\u00a0during morning and evening hours or when it\u2019s cloudy, and of course it generates nothing at night. But it does generate a\u00a0lot of power during the hottest hours of typical summer days.\u00a0NERC\u00a0found that the\u00a030.5\u00a0gigawatts of new solar are contributing\u00a016.4\u00a0gigawatts of capacity at times of peak summer demand.<\/p>

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Batteries that can store excess solar power for use later in the day have also come online at a\u00a0rapid clip.\u00a0NERC\u00a0tallied more than\u00a016\u00a0gigawatts of battery capacity added since last summer.<\/p>\n

Most of those batteries have been built in Texas and California, as well as in other parts of the US West, the report notes. Solar-charged batteries have been\u00a0saving the California\u00a0and\u00a0Texas grids\u00a0from summer shortfalls in recent years, helping to dramatically reduce the risk of heatwave-driven blackouts.<\/p>\n

But solar and batteries have also bolstered other regions. \u201cMISO\u2019s capacity resources have improved since Summer\u00a02025,\u201d the report says, with the new additions\u00a0\u200b\u201cmade up of predominantly solar resource installations, along with smaller amounts of natural gas, wind, and battery storage resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assessment underscores the fact that solar and wind make the grid more reliable even though the\u00a0Trump administration likes to argue otherwise, said Jessi Eidbo, a\u00a0senior adviser at the Sierra Club and member of\u00a0NERC\u2019s Large Loads Working Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a\u00a0conversation about renewables being tied to reliability risk,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u200b\u201cThis report reflects the conclusion that renewables are significant contributors to reducing risk on the system today.\u201d<\/p>\n

To prove the point, Eidbo highlighted the section of\u00a0NERC\u2019s report that calculates what proportion of the total capacity of solar, wind, hydropower, and battery storage is available to serve the peak demand hour in a\u00a0given area. That\u2019s an important metric to determine how helpful different resources are during crunch time for the\u00a0grid.<\/p>\n

NERC\u00a0found that the\u00a020.4\u00a0gigawatts of solar available in\u00a0MISO\u00a0are capable of providing\u00a060 percent of their nameplate generation capacity during peak hours.\u00a0NERC\u2019s assessment of the peak load contribution of\u00a0MISO\u2019s fleet of roughly\u00a03.6\u00a0gigawatts of battery storage was even higher, at\u00a097 percent.<\/p>\n

NERC\u00a0found similar, if slightly lower, values for solar and batteries to meet summer peak hours in the Southwest Power Pool, a\u00a0grid operator serving\u00a014\u00a0Midwest and Great Plains states. The report assigned a\u00a054 percent peak contribution rating to\u00a0SPP\u2019s\u00a03.9\u00a0gigawatts of solar, and an\u00a084 percent peak contribution rating to the region\u2019s\u00a01.3\u00a0gigawatts of battery storage.<\/p>\n

Both of those regions have fallen from\u00a0\u200b\u201celevated\u201d risk to\u00a0\u200b\u201cnormal\u201d risk from summer\u00a02025\u00a0to summer\u00a02026, Eidbo noted\u2014and both\u00a0\u200b\u201chave very high percentages of nameplate capacity from energy storage systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a\u00a0good sign that solar and batteries, both of which can be built more quickly and cheaply than gas plants, can also serve the grid when the summer heat hits and demand goes through the\u00a0roof.\u00a0<\/p>

Read more What Americans Really Think in These Troubled Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And no thanks to the Trump administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nOur Power Grid Is in Better Shape This Summer, Thanks to Solar and Batteries - Moving and Mortgage Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=335\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Power Grid Is in Better Shape This Summer, Thanks to Solar and Batteries - Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"And no thanks to the Trump administration.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=335\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving and Mortgage Hub\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-30T14:38:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ed56e5b0d0087b93f209eba9a36947d1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1124\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=335#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=335\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b7c79bcfd888d98f34c5413df7e81a2\"},\"headline\":\"Our Power Grid Is in Better Shape This Summer, Thanks to Solar and Batteries\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-30T14:38:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=335\"},\"wordCount\":1064,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=335#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/bd4fac56c364458b78ce27bdf8580dc8.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=335#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=335\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movingandmortgagehub.com\\\/?p=335\",\"name\":\"Our Power Grid Is in Better Shape This Summer, Thanks to Solar and Batteries - 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