| The one who doesn't know how the grid works is you. Some demand is variable. But a lot (usually most) is not. So having reliable base generation is highly valuable and not having that base-load generation ramp up and down is a feature, not a bug. Intermittent generation is not variable, it is intermittent. Whereas to meet variable demand it would need to be dispatchable. Look it up. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispatchable_generation Intermittent renewables are not dispatchable. Not even a bit. The US nuclear fleet's CF has hovered over 90%. France's is only in the high 70s or low 80s because they do extensive load following (the stuff you say nuclear can't do...they've only been doing it for four decades or so). France took its fleet offline in the summer of 2022, because that is where demand is lowest and generation from intermittent renewables is highest, for example Germany typically has to give away lots of electricity (or even pay consumers to get rid of it) because of their guaranteed feed-in. In the end, France had to import only 4% of its electricity even in 2022, and most of that was in the summer, again where electricity prices are lowest because of high generation and low demand. And during all the other years it tends to be largest exporter of electricity in Europe if not the world. |
Like I said, on a yearly basis the Californian grid goes from 15GW to 50 GW.
That your nuclear grid will collapse when a cold spell hits leading to people freezing to death is fine.
Thats a socialized loss! Someone else will need to solve it!
I love that you completely ignored the Swedish example from last week.
And then with a sleight of hand ignored that the French nuclear issues persisted throughout the entire energy crisis winter.