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17 comments on The Bullroarer - Saturday 1 December 2007
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17 comments on The Bullroarer - Saturday 1 December 2007
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No doubt this has been done for half a century with FF powered stations which more or less can be switched on as required but with renewables you cannot crank up supply if the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing.
If it is so straightforward to power a largish city by renewables only then why hasn't it happened?
Inherent intermittency of supply of wind and solar requires storage technology which does not exist as yet AFAIK for base load power.
It hasn't been done because coal has been cheap and easy to do (and nuclear had side benefits like big bombs).
Storage isn't an absolute requirement - it just makes the demand management problem easier.
Kiashu's comments about the intermittency (and variability) of coal fired power stations are true - these things adjust their output levels all the time.
The same applies to nuclear plants - Ireland looked at nuclear and realised they'd have to build 2 plants even though one would meet their needs - because sometimes, they go down...
Once people get this through their heads the baseload fallacy usually drops away not long after...