asdefghyk 8 hours ago

The big problem is it’s not 24/7. And to make it 24/7 is enormously expensive. This is the hard part.

  • ZeroGravitas 5 hours ago

    The big problem is that it is only covering about a third of electricity, same as coal at the moment.

    We can cost effectively replace the vast majority of that coal and gas and stop people building more without it ever being necessary to guarantee 24/7 clean energy until much later. And save lives as well as money in the process.

    Why people feel the compulsion to leap ahead and invent non-problems and purity tests to slow that process down is fascinating but deeply depressing.

    • asdefghyk 2 hours ago

      The big problem is also that solar and most wind is intermittent and unreliable. Solar only produces nameplate generation capacity for a few hours a day. Higher levels lead to grid being unstable. Lots Mass storage and/or transmission lines are also needed.