> In June 2011 several energy companies including Centrica told the government that 17 gas-fired plants costing £10 billion would be needed by 2020 to act as ba

> In June 2011 several energy companies including Centrica told the government that 17 gas-fired plants costing £10 billion would be needed by 2020 to act as back-up generation for wind. That was highly wishful thinking on behalf of gas plant operators. In fact, I believe only one new CCGT plant (Carrington) has been commissioned in the UK since 2010, and during this time several older plants were closed. No further gas plants are currently under construction in the UK or seem likely to be built in the near future, despite very low gas prices. Storage technology and interconnects (including reversible interconnects such as the North Sea Link to Norway) are likely to be the better solution to intermittentcy. > Is this actually a point that anyone disagrees with? Baseload is an important part of the grid infrastructure, but it doesn't make sense to over-build it... > In terms of grid stability, nuclear doesn't have a problem with load following, but since the fuel cost is so minimal, it is more economic to not do that. Nuclear can not follow load like a gas turbine can! Sure, a few plants in France are built with the ability to scale down to 50% power or so (essential because of their high percentage of nuclear) but the vast majority around the world operate only at their full rated power. Even when designed to ramp, it takes time to reduce and increase power in a reactor (hours rather than minutes, like in a gas turbine) and these ramps are performed to a schedule rather than in real-time response to grid demands. > "low/no demand"? What developed country on this planet has no demand for electricity at night? Supply can easily exceed demand at off-peak times if you have too much inflexible baseload power. Thus there would be no demand for the power produced from additional nuclear power plants at night. It doesn't make sense to build expensive baseload just to satisfy demand peaks. There are cheaper options. > 50% of all demand on windy days? Do you have a citation for that? Sorry, it was 50% renewables, including solar and biomass. Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40198567 http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40198567 We are now regularly over 50% for combined low-carbon sources, including nuclear, however.