Green energy’s instability a national security risk
by Bret Manley · The Washington TimesOPINION:
The unspoken truth about renewable energy remains the biggest impediment to its continued deployment: Forcing intermittent energy sources onto our existing grid is not as simple as plugging in.
Electricity does not flow through an electric grid in a straight line. When voltage or frequency fluctuates, interdependencies can lead to systemic failures. Without an existing, consistent power source to fill the gaps, the system collapses.
Traditional coal, gas and nuclear power keep turbines spinning 24 hours a day. Intermittent energy sources, such as wind and solar, cannot and never will do the same. When you layer them onto systems designed for gas-powered turbines, the cascading consequences can be catastrophic.
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For the anti-fossil-fuel crowd, the solution to this problem relies on having enough power in storage — batteries — to smooth things out in times of distress. Unfortunately, green energy incentives focus too much on flashy solar and wind farms that generate big headlines and ignore or even restrict the manufacturing of American-made energy-storage solutions.
The result: a flood of cheap Chinese imports that are an enormous risk to our personal and national security.
When you confront green energy advocates about this obvious problem, the most common reaction is denial. We saw this play out with the collapse of the Iberian Peninsula’s electric grid on April 28, 2025. Although official reports cited technical control and reserve failures, grid analysts point to low inertia from high renewable penetration as a key underlying vulnerability.
By refusing to grapple with the shortcomings of intermittent renewable energy sources, green energy proponents are actually holding back progress on a future less dependent on fossil fuels.
The maligning of Elon Musk — and, by extension, Tesla — by the political left is a prime example of how proponents of green energy struggle to understand the systems required to advance their goals.
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To a casual observer, Tesla is a company making cars that run on electricity. In reality, it is a battery company selling cars to finance and advance the development of its battery storage technology. Tesla is on pace to deploy an estimated 55 GWh of commercial-grade energy storage solutions this year — batteries that power homes and grids, not cars — representing a projected twelvefold increase over the past five years.
To put that into perspective, that is enough storage capacity to power more than 5.2 million average U.S. households for an entire year, and roughly the same raw energy as 1.63 million gallons of gasoline.
U.S.-based manufacturers in the battery and storage industry struggle to compete with cheaper Chinese imports, often manufactured with materials produced with forced labor. In addition to human rights concerns, there is a major national security risk in allowing Chinese battery technology to gain a foothold in the U.S.
Researchers in Norway investigating the security and privacy threats posed by Chinese-made electric vehicles studied a NIO ES8 electric SUV and found that approximately 90% of the vehicle’s outbound network connections were routed to servers in China. More troubling, the vehicle continued attempting to contact servers even when it was turned off.
Issues such as this are why major automotive trade groups are urging the Trump administration to maintain its ban on Chinese automobiles in the U.S. If this is the reality of Chinese technology in your cars, what do you think would happen if we inserted their batteries and software into our homes, hospitals and electric grids?
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We must live in the world as it actually exists — and in that world, the United States has adversaries. These adversaries will exploit comparative advantages to advance their own power and priorities. Refusing to grapple with this fundamental element of human nature betrays a lack of real interest in moving the U.S. away from fossil fuels.
The future of American energy does not hinge on generating more intermittent power; it depends on our ability to build and control the storage systems required to keep the grid running.
• Bret Manley is the executive director of the Energy Fair Trade Coalition. He is a former naval intelligence officer and previously worked on Capitol Hill as chief of staff to a senior member of the Congressional Climate Solutions Caucus.