Carolinian
TUG Member
Again, no link to where this came from, but it is clearly the same spew from Lazard, that investment bank that specializes in lending to wind and solar, a VERY self-serving analysis, and uses "levelized cost of electricity" which washes out the thing that makes wind and solar so expensive in the real world, its intermittency. The chart also conveniently fails to describe what "Gas Peaking" is. That is the gas backup you have to have for intermittent wind and solar to cover when they are not producing. It is very inefficient to run any power plant on and off like that, but it is necessary when you rely on intermittent sources like wind and solar. The huge difference in price can be seen by comparing with "gas combined cycle" which is running a gas power plant 24/7 instead of on and off. The "Gas Peaking" is the price that has to be paid when the wind is not blowing, or blowing too hard and/or the sun is not shining. How convenient that they fail to explain that.
For a dose of reality, here is a comparison of the demand for electricity versus what wind and solar can supply for two weeks in Germany in the dead of winter. Notice how often the demand peak coincides with a falloff in wind / solar production:
For a dose of reality, here is a comparison of the demand for electricity versus what wind and solar can supply for two weeks in Germany in the dead of winter. Notice how often the demand peak coincides with a falloff in wind / solar production:
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