Originally Posted by
BradC
Actually as my Social Studies teacher used to say, "that's a load of horse hockey".
Those solar farms are "wasting electricity" not because the grid can't cope, but because there is insufficient demand when they are producing. Nothing more complex than that.
If the power was dispatchable then they'd do very well, but it's not. They're trying to hurl power into an already satisfied grid and whining that nobody will take it because they have no way of storing it. "Wah wah wah, I can generate all this power but I want someone to store it for me and pay me for it". If they're so concerned, why aren't they providing their own battery storage? Oh that's right, because without huge subsidy it's still not viable.
Renewables are inherently unreliable. That's fine if you don't mind freezing to death in the dark, but for the rest of us there needs to be some stability in the grid.