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by barney54 3791 days ago
Comparing wind and nuclear is not an apples-to-apples comparison. To make a valid comparison, you would need to compare wind + some kind of back up such as natural gas (or possibly some nuclear).

There is a premium for reliable sources of electricity generation since you have to have reliable generation to avoid blackouts.

1 comments

You make an excellent point.

Wind and solar can capture more $fiat per MWh if they purchase Tesla stationary storage and can deliver firm dispatchability (that premium for reliable generation you mention).

Natural gas will make a fine stopgap until we have enough battery storage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispatchable_generation

I am not aware of any market where generators are getting a premium for being dispatchable. I would be very interested in knowing what the value is.

Certainly some markets have prices that vary through the day to give generators the incentive to generate when power is needed most if they have that flexibility.

The UK system has a "capacity auction", separate from the spot price, which covers dispatchable generation.

"Through the auction, government has procured 49.26GW of capacity at a clearing price of £19.40kW" (second link). Note units are kW not MWh.

http://www.nationalgridconnecting.com/keeping-the-lights-on/

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-first-ever-capacity-m...