Microgrid Knowledge – Russia doesn’t know it, but it just made a strong case for local energy

The worldwide headline today is that Russia is cutting natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria unless they pay in rubles, making energy, in essence, a weapon of war. European leaders described Russia’s move as blackmail to undercut their support of Ukraine.

Russia’s actions make real the longtime worry that European countries are too reliant on Russia for energy to heat their homes and run their businesses.

It also underscores the value of microgrids, solar, energy storage and other forms of local energy — energy that is under the control of a local community, government, business or even household — and not a distant source that can advertently cut off supply as Russia did, or inadvertently as thousands of trees do regularly when they tumble onto wires causing power outages, sometimes hundreds of miles away.

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