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Ask the western US if it is an issue right now. If you don't hear back it's because their power is out.

• Ensorceled 4y ago
  I didn't realize California etc. had hit the level of dependency on solar/wind where this could be a factor. Good on them.
  • crackercrews 4y ago
    The people who lost power and couldn't cool themselves down in 100 degree weather might not agree with your congratulations from afar. They might also not like that their energy costs are dramatically higher than even in neighboring states. But if it makes you feel better, I guess that makes it all good, right?
    • Ensorceled 4y ago
      I was being sarcastic. California gets 17% of their electricity from solar and 8% wind, but their current issues are during a sunny heat wave so solar should be going like gangbusters.
      • crackercrews 4y ago
        As noted elsewhere, solar peak is at noon and usage peak is hours later. Wind power happens whenever the wind blows. The problem is that they have taken other more reliable sources offline. If the 25% you reference were more reliable they wouldn't have to warn people about power usage just in case it got cloudy or wasn't breezy enough. I read that they had to turn off a desalination plant because of the power crunch. That makes their drought even worse. Doesn't sound like winning to me.
        • Ekaros 4y ago
          Turning off desalination plant if it is easy to turn on-and-off seems like one of the smart use cases. Just need to have it to have overprovisioned size so that it can stock pile water when power is available at reasonable rates. And that really isn't a complex thing, we have been doing it for millenia now.