It's a good question. The short answer is that although the daily peak in California tends to be around 7pm, the annual peak is more like 3pm-5pm due to air con

It's a good question. The short answer is that although the daily peak in California tends to be around 7pm, the annual peak is more like 3pm-5pm due to air conditioning on hot summer days. So solar, at our current margins, actually does supply peak demand and thereby reduce capex needed for gas peakers. (And annual peak demand is the correct timeframe to use, since our system targets reliability on the scale of years not days.) Today's peak: http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1rodt4fciRKkUDvTkcVoFmwYyhvh26uIb9E4cv13tWDQWcivFXfYFwWtY http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/index.html?fbclid=I... Annual peaks: https://www.caiso.com/documents/californiaisopeakloadhistory.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3lVViQ0LmD4pYZW7OOkJJ8vW0Nd96qOQ0a_eoTzhuGB-d4pDBy1ZVHsV0 https://www.caiso.com/documents/californiaisopeakloadhistory... I wrote a detailed version of this comment later in another thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28436432 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28436432