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That's only a problem that's much farther down the road, say when solar penetration goes above 10% or 20%. In the mean time you could just throttle hydro plant

That's only a problem that's much farther down the road, say when solar penetration goes above 10% or 20%. In the mean time you could just throttle hydro plants and natural gas plants to account for both usage variations as well as wind and solar production variations. Too bad coal is very very cheap right now.

InclinedPlane 13y ago
It's a problem preventing solar penetration beyond a niche market. It also, as you point out, prevents solar from actually displacing existing power plant capacity. That means that solar power comes at an extraneous cost, since it doesn't obviate the need of building even a single non-solar power plant. Those are big problems and it's not as though we're magically going to start building lots and lots of solar power capacity without solving those problems. The sooner their tackled the faster those technologies will be on the amortization/improvement train and their costs will fall. Solar and wind are today just sideshows in power production, if you want them to be otherwise the smart move is to invest in storage technologies.
- mikeyouse 13y ago
  I agree with your sentiment, but solar prices have plummeted and clever new financing arrangements from Solar City et al. have made them much more accessible, in the US at least. http://www.urbanphotovoltaic.com/Portals/0/solutions/photovoltaic/GlobalSolarInstallation-92-12%20Download.JPG http://www.urbanphotovoltaic.com/Portals/0/solutions/photovo... We're slowing getting there, ~100GW of capacity installed in 2012, up from ~40GW in 2010.
userulluipeste 13y ago
"Too bad coal is very very cheap right now." Bad things are cheap to benefit from only when one is allowed to dump the real costs on others. Real costs were allowed to be dumped aside on others only because there weren't any real alternative solutions for problems at hand. Things change.
- Gravityloss 13y ago
  Yes, that's what laws and treaties are for. For example, beyond a certain size, our cities would be unlivable without waste regulations. So the freedom to throw their waste out of the front door was taken away for people living in cities.

InclinedPlane 13y ago

It's a problem preventing solar penetration beyond a niche market. It also, as you point out, prevents solar from actually displacing existing power plant capacity. That means that solar power comes at an extraneous cost, since it doesn't obviate the need of building even a single non-solar power plant. Those are big problems and it's not as though we're magically going to start building lots and lots of solar power capacity without solving those problems. The sooner their tackled the faster those technologies will be on the amortization/improvement train and their costs will fall. Solar and wind are today just sideshows in power production, if you want them to be otherwise the smart move is to invest in storage technologies.

mikeyouse 13y ago
I agree with your sentiment, but solar prices have plummeted and clever new financing arrangements from Solar City et al. have made them much more accessible, in the US at least. http://www.urbanphotovoltaic.com/Portals/0/solutions/photovoltaic/GlobalSolarInstallation-92-12%20Download.JPG http://www.urbanphotovoltaic.com/Portals/0/solutions/photovo... We're slowing getting there, ~100GW of capacity installed in 2012, up from ~40GW in 2010.

userulluipeste 13y ago

"Too bad coal is very very cheap right now." Bad things are cheap to benefit from only when one is allowed to dump the real costs on others. Real costs were allowed to be dumped aside on others only because there weren't any real alternative solutions for problems at hand. Things change.

Gravityloss 13y ago
Yes, that's what laws and treaties are for. For example, beyond a certain size, our cities would be unlivable without waste regulations. So the freedom to throw their waste out of the front door was taken away for people living in cities.