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this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
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But were those renewables able to meet demand 100% of the time with sufficient battery backups?
Well it doesn't matter if it exports the surplus to other states and cuts their fossil fuel usage. It means that 100% of that renewable energy was cut from fossil fuels.
There is always a need to smooth out troughs. That can be through, selling, shifting demand (cheaper tarrifs during surplus), storage or as a last resort bridging gaps with other fuels.
Let's not let perfect get in the way of good. Every tonne of CO2 out the air gives us more time and a little more chance for at risk countries to stay above water.
It's certainly good, but I think it'd be better if we had some additional clean way of covering our base load. Like nuclear.
Renewables + storage (batteries, etc.) can be more than enough. And you can get that in a much lower cost, at a much faster time than nuclear.
https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/NuclearVsWWS.pdf
The same person has also published studies and plans for 100% renewables in the USA and in the world.
USA
Grid reliability in the USA with 100% renewables
World
All of which he updates every couple of years.
It does matter because you have to cover a lacune of 6-8 weeks from fossil sources. Typically these are gas turbine peaker plants at low duty cycle which need to be subsidized.