Unreliability makes solar power impossibly expensive
By David Wojick |January 19th, 2022|General Information|17 Comments
Many states and the utilities they regulate are talking about replacing their coal and gas fired generators with solar and wind power. For example, I recently wrote about how the crazy-named Virginia Clean Economy Act already has almost 800 square miles of solar slabs in the developmental lineup. See
https://www.cfact.org/2021/12/27/paving-virginia-with-solar-slabs-is-a-bad-law/.
Given the high intermittency of wind and solar the idea of running on solar and wind turns out to be an extremely costly prospect. It is all about reliability. Electricity must be there when we need it. Below I present some simple calculations that show just how bad this idea really is.
Reliability analysis of large scale solar and wind power generation can be very complex. Both depend on the weather, which can vary dramatically and quickly. Both can depend heavily on other available power sources, if available. They can also depend on each other under some conditions.
https://www.cfact.org/2022/01/19/unreliability-makes-solar-power-impossibly-expensive/
