Comment by foota
3 hours ago
"Wind and solar power do not provide dispatchable power and they therefore do not replace conventional power plants. Germany isn't keeping their coal-fired power plants and they're not building new gas-fired power plants despite the energy transition but because of it."
4 hour storage battery operated renewables are now cost competitive with gas plants.
Exactly, but it is not a binary thing. The most capable solution is a combination of both. The batteries can kick in within seconds to bridge a couple of hours, while the gas turbines have enough time to fire up slowly as the batteries get close to empty and there is still no wind or sun.
The problem is that you need energy storage for much longer times then 4 hours.
" Most of these events occur from October to February; typically 50 to 150 hours per year, a single event usually lasts up to 24 hours "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkelflaute