> Solar and wind are causing major issues in distribution networks It's a lot less dramatic than you paint it to be. In Spain, 23% of generation comes from wi

> Solar and wind are causing major issues in distribution networks It's a lot less dramatic than you paint it to be. In Spain, 23% of generation comes from wind and solar and they manage just fine. Of course you need to spend money on technology (coordination, forecasting of weather, real-time communication between power plants and a control room [0], etc). So 0.4% of solar is pretty trivial to handle. Of course it hits the profits, and Iberdrola fought hard to get a "grid-tax", because their profit had gone down by 0.9% to only 4bn (EBIDTA) [1] But since you seem educated about electricity and power generation, maybe you can tell us what the grid costs are. Take $0.10/kWh in Texas for example. What percentage is fuel, CAPEX, distribution and profit? That information would make the debate more meaningful. "But think of the grid!" is not specific enough. [0] http://black-capital.com/news/2010/09/cecre-a-control-center-that-is-unique-in-the-world/?lang=es http://black-capital.com/news/2010/09/cecre-a-control-center... [1] http://www.iberdrola.es/press-room/press-releases/national-international/2013/detail/press-release/130724_NP_01_PresentacionResultados1S13.html http://www.iberdrola.es/press-room/press-releases/national-i...