5 ms·

> Newer data says otherwise OK, GLWT. > And variability is easy to deal with: overbuild and/or storage. Southern Australia shows how it is done. Australian e

• cycomanic 5y ago
  He did say South Australia, which is investing heavily into renewables and battery storage. The thing is that Australia has a huge coal lobby (being one of the biggest producers in the world) and the current conservative government is essentially in bed with them. Incidentally Australia is also one of the biggest producers of Uranium.
  • rsj_hn 5y ago
    It's like California shutting down their nuclear plant. Well, OK it imports 30% of it's electricity from the rest of the grid already, so that can go up to 40%. Utah will add another gas plant, turn that on at night, and California can claim that it has replaced nuclear with solar. Both of them are pulling from the same grid and electricity is fungible. So adding unreliable renewables to a grid is not an impressive achievement as long as you have a reliable source on the same grid. This is why I asked for examples of countries. To switch entirely to wind or solar, you have to spend a lot on battery tech or other energy storage, and those costs dwarf the costs of the solar panels or wind turbines, and that is ultimately what determines whether something is feasible to scale up to the entire grid.