| > That is the average base demand over a year. Then it's not clear where you came up with 13 GW, which is inconsistent with the ~24 GW from the Department of Energy. > Either way, solving a 24 GW or 35 GW on top of ~20 GW something base is about as easy. Needing 48GW instead of 24GW would literally double the cost, on top of doubling the cost of renewable generation since you'd need an average of 48GW of that instead of 24 to avoid regular use of a backup system which is presumably fossil fuels. That is not a small difference. > Which is why nuclear power does not fit modern grids, because they will be required to shut down. There is no point at which they shut down. They provide baseload. You get 24 GW from nuclear, which is the minimum load on the grid. If you also get something from renewables at this time, that's when you charge your batteries for later. This won't get you a week but allows you to do peak shaving. If the load is 48GW and you get 24GW from nuclear and 24GW from renewables, everything is fine. If the load is 48GW and you get 24GW from nuclear and anything less from renewables, now you discharge the batteries. And then you only need 24 GW of peaker plants in the event that the batteries are dead and current load exceeds current generation. |