[Gibbon1]

I'm totally with this, the idea that no market for 'excess' electric will appear doesn't pass the sniff test. A paper I read discussed a pilot plant in the 50's that produced iron from sulfide ores. Certainly sounds like a process that can consume excess power without much trouble provided that situation happens frequently enough.

http://www.ulcos.org/en/docs/Ref03%20-%20Electrowinning%20-%...

'High purity iron was produced, with a current yield of 85% and a power consumption of 4.25 kWh/kg iron'

Far as I can tell, 1 GW for an hour would produce ~250 tons of iron.