Plus, what never gets factored into this, is a sane discussion about industrial uses. Switching off industrial users in extreme events (light winds/cloudy for multiple weeks) has a cost, but that could also be factored in to the costs of relative power strategies.
We already have these kind of contracts — perhaps we should be more aggressive in pursuing that?
There is no storage solution for this. How do you store daily power needs of a large metro area x 3 days? Batteries? Thermal? The capacity isn't there today for a viable installation. Maybe in rural areas that can give up a ton of land mass for a relatively low population.
Plus, what never gets factored into this, is a sane discussion about industrial uses. Switching off industrial users in extreme events (light winds/cloudy for multiple weeks) has a cost, but that could also be factored in to the costs of relative power strategies. We already have these kind of contracts — perhaps we should be more aggressive in pursuing that?